№ 5 (49), 2011 - KazEnergy

down», but also on strong and reliable politicalcontacts at the «top».Exactly these components of strengtheningthe position of China in Kazakhstan togetherwith the importance of getting fromAstana mineral and energy resources haveplayed a crucial role in the current state ofinvestment cooperation between Astana andBeijing.In fact, ever since gaining the independenceof Kazakhstan, the Chinese government haspaid particular attention for cooperationwith its Central Asian partner. All theseyears on the level of heads of the states andheads of the governments there remainedvery close personal ties, regardless of whoheld these offices at various times.Also important the fact that over the pasttime, the Chinese offered Kazakhstan lucrativefinancial conditions for the implementationof all oil and gas deals withoutexception, in comparison with American,European and Russian competitors.Symbolic, and in many ways a breakthroughin this area is considered a visit of ChinesePresident Hu Jintao to Kazakhstan in August2007, that laid the foundation for agradual strengthening of the Chinese presencein the energy sector of the country. Inthis case, an important part of cooperationbetween Beijing and Astana was the layingof pipelines to transport crude oil and naturalgas from Kazakhstan to industrial facilitiesof Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regionof China.In this regard it should be noted that neitherRussia nor the U.S. nor the EU countrieshave not offered Kazakhstan an activeconstruction of new pipeline routes (no oneremembers anything about the Caspianpipeline to Russia) and much less they weregoing to invest to them. China for its partstakes at a long-term cooperation in the«pipeline diplomacy» - and even less for thenear than for long-term perspective.According to American experts, another majorattractive aspect of Chinese investmentexpansion is the fact that Chinese companiesalways overpay for the acquisition forthose or other oil and gas assets in Kazakhstan.By what, on the one hand, they cutoff their direct competitors from the energydeals (USA, EU. Russia), on the other hand– they more often get a carte blanche for futurework from the Kazakh side.Thus, in order to capitally penetrate to Kazakhenergy market, China deliberately offersa much larger amount at acquisition ofcertain energy assets in the country (for example,for the purchase of «Nations Energy»Chinese offered $ 4.18 billion). Plus, Chinahad intended to buy the American oil companyUnocal through which they plannedto enter into several energy projects of Kazakhstan.It is also significant that at the beginning ofthis century, China did not appear almost atall in the list of investors of Kazakhstan andeven more so - in the energy sector. But forthe rapid development of China's economyBeijing became more actively looking forsources of energy. And Kazakhstan, like otherCentral Asian countries, was the first in«the Chinese energy object-glass» due to theclose borders of China's geographic location,and a relatively organized system of Sovietrefining and transportation infrastructure.Chinese oil companies started to behave inKazakhstan so successfully and actively thatlast year they participated almost in half ofextraction of all Kazakh oil. Joint ventureswith Chinese participation extracted 22 outof 40 million tons of oil in Kazakhstan. Andcompanies that are completely controlled byChinese capital extracted 18 million tons ofoil from Kazakhstan's subsoil.As a result, we can confidently say that theChinese «oil investment pressure» in Kazakhstanwas of the fastest time of implementation,and of volume growth. For example,in 1999, China had invested to the oilsector of Kazakhstan only $ 5 million. Butlast year it increased more than a hundredtimes - $ 550 million China invested to oiland gas sector of the country.Only over the last five years, Chinese companieshave acquired so many assets in theoil field of Kazakhstan that today they controlabout 1 billion tons of oil reserves of thecountry. Among the largest investment projectsundertaken by China in Kazakhstan, itis worth to mention the acquisition by theChina National Petroleum Corporation 70%of shares of «PetroKazakhstan»; there is aChinese interest in the Karazhanbasmunaithe energycompaniesfrom the UnitedStates invested$ 9.34 billion justto the extraction ofnatural resources,including $ 1billion investedinto Kazakhstan'soil sector byleading U.S. energygiants as Chevron,Exxon Mobil andConocoPhillips.KAZENERGY95