Kazakstan suspends oil exports

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ALMATY, Kazakstan (AP) - Kazakstan has suspended all oil exports to make sure there is enough fuel in the country for winter heating needs, officials said Monday. Kazakstan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia, has oil deposits off its Caspian Sea coast and also some oil fields inland. Much of what is extracted has gone to the foreign, rather than domestic, markets.

As a result, fuel oil supplies have fallen to critically low levels, the government said.

Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbayev signed a decree Saturday suspending all oil exports, aides said.

Local authorities in the capital Astana and in Kazakstan's largest city, Almaty, have been ordered to report to the federal government every 10 days on the status of fuel oil reserves

[End story]

Could it be that kazakstan as a country just GI?

-- CygnusXI (noburnt@toast.net), September 20, 1999

Answers

Good for them...They're gonna need it. Its some hostile terrain in that part of the world, and its nice to see a .gov finally worring about it's people instead of its profit margin!!

-- Billy-Boy (Rakkasn@Yahoo.com), September 20, 1999.

Did you notice: what they pump now, but don't ship as exports at a low price now; can be stored very easily and shipped later - at a (probably) much higher price later if other countries fail or face interuptions in pumping?

Yes, some could be held back for heating oil - but this is a small population country, living in very poor conditions, with a population long held in contempt and disreagrd by its rulers. Does it make sense for these rulers now all in a sudden to take extra undue care of their people?

Cold-hearted? Perhaps. But don't assume immediately that a foreign government wishing to reduce oil exports won't itself take care to spread some useful propaganda.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), September 20, 1999.

great point Robert!

Could this be why there is so much activity now with OPEC and other interests? Seems like a lot of activity within the industry lately. Wasn't there a recent account of the Saudi interests putting reserves in tankers in the gulf?

Mike

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-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), September 20, 1999.