Kazakhstan wants bigger state role in energy
By Raushan Nurshayeva
ASTANA, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan, fresh from a bitter row with Western oil companies over a Caspian oilfield, wants to build up its weight further in its energy sector, the Central Asian state's president said on Wednesday.
Kazakhstan reinforced its increasingly assertive role in oil diplomacy last month when it doubled its stake in the huge Kashagan oilfield and stripped Italy's Eni (ENI.MI) of its leading role in the world's biggest oil find in three decades.
Its actions have alarmed foreign investors who see them as part of the growing global trend of resource nationalism.
In his annual state of the nation address, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev called on the state to play a more active role in energy matters.
"We are consistently strengthening state influence in the strategically important energy sphere," he said. "You have all witnessed that we raised Kazakhstan's role in developing Kashagan.... We will continue our work in that direction."
The steppe nation, roughly the size of Western Europe, lies on some of the world's biggest energy and metals deposits.
Although it has drawn billions of dollars of foreign investment since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan has toughed its oil policy towards foreign players over past years, emboldened by booming oil and gas prices.
An ex-Soviet satellite state that was once Moscow's nuclear test site, it now seeks to mould an increasingly independent foreign policy, keeping both Russia and the West at arms length.
"Whatever they say, we have our own path of development," Nazarbayev said in his speech. "We are not behind anyone in terms of human rights or freedom. We will measure all our further steps by the stability of our nation."
Kazakhstan set alarm bells ringing further last year by passing legislation empowering the government to unilaterally break oil contracts. It also wants to impose an oil export duty from 2009 to stabilise supplies on the domestic market.
Nazarbayev's key goal is to turn Kazakhstan into one of the world's 10 biggest crude producers by 2017. But he also wants to build a technologically advanced and diverse economy.
"The main element of the oil and gas sector is a stronger state role as an influential participant in the international energy market," he said. "It is really important because it helps us enter global markets with value-added products." (Writing by Maria Golovnina; editing by James Jukwey)
