Kazakhstan fires its energy minister amid tensions between OPEC+ and oil majors

The country's president announced on Tuesday that Kazakhstan's Energy Minister will step down as a minister. This comes amid the government's struggle to convince U.S. companies and European oil firms to reduce production levels above OPEC+ targets.

In a Tuesday decree, the president's office announced that Almasadam Sakaliyev would become the new head of the newly-created atomic agency. Uncertainty remains about who will replace Satkaliyev at the Energy Ministry.

Satkaliyev has been the minister since April 2023.

OPEC said Kazakhstan was the largest contributor to a rise in crude production by OPEC+ for February.

He visited the United States last week to meet with major oil companies Chevron ExxonMobil Shell Eni Honeywell and ExxonMobil that operate in Kazakhstan.

Satkaliyev stated that the discussions were aimed to reduce oil production in order to align the supply of the country with OPEC+ goals. The outcome of the discussions was not disclosed by the ministry.

In February, the Central Asian nation produced 1.767 millions barrels per daily (bpd), up from 1.570 in January. The country's OPEC+ quota for the year is 1.468 millions bpd.

The Ministry has stated that the increase is due to the expansion by Chevron of the Tengiz oil field. It also pledged to better comply with its quota.

Kazakhstan has no nuclear power plants, but it does have large uranium deposits. These reserves are about 15% of all uranium in the world and second only to Australia. Reporting by Mariya Goreyeva from Almaty, Writing by Maxim Rodionov, Editing by Kirsten Doovan and Louise Heavens

(source: Reuters)