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R.T.Ibrayev, Kazakh by birth, was born in 1948. Graduated from the following learning institutions: the Tashkent Polytechnic Institute in 1970, the Academy of Social Sciences under Central Committee of the Communistic Party in 1983 and graduate study at the Academy of Social Sciences. Speaks English. Has a diplomatic rank of Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Envoy, Ph.D. degree in history, senior reader. Employment history and education are :
in 1970 he worked as mechanical engineer in hydro-geological field team.
1971-1972 - designer and secretary of the komsomol (the Communistic Union of Youth People) committee for the Kzyl-Tu firm.
1972-1976 - instructor, organizer-in-charge, deputy manager of department of Central Committee of the Lenin Communistic Union of Youth People (LCUYP) of the Kazakh SSR.
1976-1978 - the first secretary of the regional committee of LCUYP in the town of Chimkent.
1978-1980 - the first secretary of the Turkestan Town Committee of Communistic Party.
1980-1986 - chairman of the town council in Chimkent.
1986-1989 - graduate study at the Academy of Public Sciences, Moscow.
1989-1990 - inspector of the regional committee for communistic party.
1991-1992 - deputy Chairman of Town Council in Chimkent.
In 1992 occupies a post of vice president of the republic’s Kazpharmbioprom concern.
1992-1994 - Chairman of Regional Council of People’s deputies in Chimkent.
1994-1995 - Member of Kazakhstan’s Supreme Council.
1996-1998 – Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to India.
From September 1998 up to the present he has been Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Azerbaijan Republic and Georgia.
Married, has two children.
Kazakhstan is the world’s 13th largest Oil and Gas Containing Region
As is known, Kazakhstan has significant oil reserves, now the 13th largest prospected reserves of oil and gas in the world. At end-1999, prospected oil reserves are 2.1-2.6 billion tons, 0.71 billion tons of gas condensate and 1.7-2.53 trillion cubic meters of gas. Kazakhstan’s hydrocarbon-bearing regions cover an area of 1.698.000 sq km. 166 fields are situated on them.
Prospective hydrocarbon reserves in mature regions are 4446.2 million tons in geological oil reserves and 1368.4 million tons in recoverable oil reserves in 175 tested areas; 667.3 billion cubic meters of gas in 67 tested areas; 507,600 tons of geological reserves and 195,800 recoverable reserves of gas condensate in 67 exploration areas.
Kazakhstan has reserves, including Caspian’s Kazakh sector, estimated at over 13 billion tons of oil and condensate and over 6 trillion cubic meters of gas. With reserves estimated at 2 percent of those of the world, Kazakhstan is the world’s 13th largest oil and gas containing region. Most of the proven resrves is concentrated in the fields of Embi and Mangyshlak basins and off Caspian coast. They make up a single geological formation and occupy the area of Atyraus, Mangistaus, Aktubin oblasts and part of Western Kazakh oblast (region).
Statistical data on Kazakhstan run that Atyraus oblast is second to none in oil reserves. The largest are Tengiz, Korolevskoye and Kenbay fields. Recently discovered fields – Krylmyltyk, Sazankuyryk and others - also contain large reserves. Kazakhstan’s second-largest oil Caspian littoral oblast is Mangistaus. Here were discovered 67 fields, 27 of them are under development. The largest among them are Uzen, Jetybai, Kalamkas, Karajanbas. Historically, it is Mangistau oblast that was Kazakhstan’s main oil depot. 75 percent of Kazakh oil were produced here. Currently, oil production slumped as the oldest Uzen field is in a state of depletion. 250 million tons of oil are left here. They cannot be recovered without serious rehabilitation of Uzen. Overwhelming majority of running Mangistaus fields are operated by joint ventures and awarded through international tenders.
The regions of Western Kazakh and Aktubinsk have the most promising oil and gas fields. In Western Kazakh oblast, eight fields are developed. One field is oil, the others are oil-gas-condensate. Five fields have been explored. The largest among them is Karachaganak oil-gas-condensate field.
Geologists suggest Aktubinsk oblast contains still more oil and gas reserves (the Janajol group of fields and others). To date, 16 oilfields, four gas-condensate deposits and five gas fields had been discovered.
Active exploration of oil and gas is under way in the Caspian Sea offshore Kazakhstan (a subsea continuation of land at a depth of 200 meters). Caspian shelf covers an area of over 100,000 sq km. The prospects off Kazakhstan’s Caspian coast are estimated to hold 3.5-4.8 billion tons of oil and 2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
Shortages in Transport Opportunities for Oil Export Slow Down Development of Kazakhstan Upstream Oil Industry
A whole range of system-forming considerations influences a problem of selecting transport routes. Among them are geopolitical ambitions, commercial advantages, political preferences, ideological and religious mainstreams of the countries involved in hydrocarbon production and transportation.
In spite of the problem of the Caspian Sea status remaining unresolved so far, the regional countries started to intensively tap oil off their shores. Currently, transport and delivery of energy resources to their consumers features among other topical problems of new independent states.
Now Kazakhstan does not have its own pipeline system and so it rents Russian pipelines for exporting its crude. It also has recourse to high-cost carriage by rail and road.
To our view, a shortfall of transport opportunities for oil export results in a slowdown in the pace of Kazakhstan’s upstream oil industry development. In that regard, the only feasible solution to the challenge is to build a pipeline network.
As existing pipeline system can handle a limited volume of oil, now it does not quite conform to Kazakhstan’s economic interests. The republic’s oil industry needs development of new crude oil pipeline systems to be built in new directions. A multidirectional pipeline network will enable Kazakhstan’s oil industry to effectively operate. Several options for the construction of the pipelines are under consideration by our government. Various foreign investors submit the offers.
To date, in Kazakhstan there are competing visions, on which six routes are the most economically sound and commercially viable:
- The Aktau – Baku – Ceyhan route with a pipeline section laid on the Caspian seabed.
- The Tengiz – Novorossiysk route operated by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).
- The Aktau – Dubendi – Batumi pathway.
- The Aktau – Northern Iran – the Gulf of Persia line.
- The Western Kazakhstan – Western China pipeline.
- The Central Asia – Indian Ocean pipeline.
If the potential lines to transport Kazakh oil is selected on the basis of the following five basic considerations:
transport costs; amounts of sales in a petroleum market; the opportunity for direct oil deliveries to consumers; a pipeline construction cost and expenses on building oil transmission infrastructure; lack of economic and political obstacles for shipping oil through transit countries,
three routes are considered more preferable:
the Caspian pipeline for a westbound oil export through Novorossiysk; main export pipeline toward the Turkish port of Ceyhan the pipeline toward the eastern part of China.
Oil, Money, Geopolitics are Inseparable
The notions of oil, money, geopolitics are inseparable. Where a talk about big oil starts, one always should search for big money and a focus of political forces’ interests. Any talks of oil always denoted for the presence of large capitals and interests. It is often hard to say where big money has a dominant influence and where geopolitics prevails.
Central Asia and the Caucasus prove the rule. There is a clash of interests of geopolitical centers of powers here. It made say about a "big geopolitical game", which oil business and big money have a big role to play in. The collapse of the world’s bipolar system resulted in creating an unique geopolitical vacuum. In some regions of the world it gave rise to the next spiral of "big geopolitical play".
The formation of new independent states within the former Soviet Union and the hydrocarbons spotlighted oil factor in the play.
The regions of Central Asia and the Caucasus, which for a long time stood aside from global processes, quickly changed into a geopolitical center. And a face-off of local, regional and global interests in the center is one of the highlights of the world’s politics.
First Tanker is Scheduled to Load with Kazakh oil at CPC’s Black Sea Terminal in Next Summer
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium moved from protracted discussions and accommodations to putting its project into practice. The first tanker is scheduled to load with Kazakh oil at CPC’s Black Sea terminal as early as next summer. Kazakhstan has already transferred the funds for the project. The long designing of the Tengiz-Novorossiysk main oil pipeline has been completed. In 1999, $854 million in investment were contributed to the project.
Until the Issue of Political Stability on the Caspian is Resolved, One Cannot Say about Oil
In our opinion, most of the Caspian problems are directly related to its unresolved status. A joint statement of Janury 24, 1998 made by Presidents N.Nazarbayev and B.Yeltsin was a positive move to solve the problems. In the statement the heads of the states spoke up for fair dividing of the Caspian seabed. Kazakh President N.Nazarbayev announced that the agreement on dividing the northern part of the Caspian Sea "would furthering that the region should serve for the welfare of the two states". We resolved not our bilateral relations but political issues. There is oil on the Caspian, it can be produced, but it is tomorrow’s matter rather than today’s. Until the issue of political stability is solved, one does not need to say about oil.
It should be noted that President H.Aliyev gave a top mark to the Kazakh-Russian agreement. He called it the first significant move toward the determination of the legal status of the Caspian Sea. As a matter of fact, before this accord, all of the agreements of the Caspian states on the sea status were more political in nature. They set down various looks at the problem and approaches to its resolving. The agreement between Kazakhstan and Russia became the first international regulatory document. It describes a way of territorial division of sea, in particular its seabed, though still only designed for harnessing its natural resources.
Kazakhstan takes the position based on that some provisions of the UNO Convention on Maritime Right of 1982 should apply to the Caspian Sea with compromising the features endemic to it.
The seabed and natural resources should be divided using the median line principle in accordance with international standards. Each Caspian state must explore and tap the natural resources in its exclusive sector on its own.
Kazakhstan takes a stand for cooperation with other Caspian states in developing prospects in the Caspian Sea offshore Kazakhstan. The form of participation can be various.
Kazakhstan thinks oil companies operating in the Caspian states are to have a share in developing natural resources in the sector of other state on common conditions. The provision must not refer to the yet existing consortia. The tapping of fields situated within the sectors of two or more states must be a subject of an agreement on production sharing between respective states.
As to marine biological resources, the use of the Caspian waters for navigation and the marine environmental protection, etc., Kazakhstan is ready to settle for wide compromises, including a condominium. In doing so, we suggest that each state must have a certain zone of territorial waters, haul-out sites for pelagic fishes, defended by national laws. The body of water and sea surface must be open to free navigation of littoral states’ ships. We believe the fishing and the use of other bio-resources must be effected in appropriate haul-out sites. The fishery can me licensed and quoted as well.
In the formulation of the legal status of the Caspian Sea, we strove to make the most of the interests of all the states. It would create a reliable and long-term legal framework for the activities of Caspian littoral states on development of the marine resources. It also will allow avoiding disputes about ownership of particular fields on the Caspian.
Kazakhstan makes every effort to resolve the legal status of the Caspian Sea as soon as possible and conclude the Convention between Caspian states. To our mind, a chief problem currently facing Caspian states is to find a mutually acceptable decision on delimitation of the Caspian seabed and to significantly bring together approaches to the topical problem. That is common knowledge that the Caspian Sea is a challenge, above all, of the Caspian states and must be resolved by negotiating on the basis of consulting the interests of each state and common interests. It does not mean that we have to aim at separate agreements. The Caspian problem can be solved only according to the consensus of opinions of all five states.
At this moment, most of the Caspian states abide by the median line principle of dividing the Caspian Sea. So we can say with certainty that an acceptable solution to the legal status of the Caspian Sea will be found in the near future by achieving a balance of interests of the parties concerned.