MP Calls for Return of Qazaq Oil Petrol Stations to State

Kazakhstan lacks a national network of petrol stations, and this is a strategic misstep, Majilis deputy Yerlan Abdiyev said during a meeting of the public council under Samruq-Qazyna, Orda.kz reports.

Addressing KazMunayGas management, Abdiyev cited the Constitution, emphasizing that the country’s natural resources belong to the people and the state acts on their behalf.

According to the sixth article of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, land, water, subsoil and other natural resources belong to the people. The state exercises the right of ownership on behalf of the people. This norm changes the rules of the game for subsoil users in favor of national companies,
 he stated.

The deputy recalled that although Kazakhstan has large oil reserves and a vertically integrated state-owned company, i.e., KMG, the company’s petrol station network was privatized in 2019 and sold to PetroRetail.

The deal was made for 60.5 billion tenge, which at that time was about 163 million dollars. The network was subsequently rebranded as Qazaq Oil. According to open sources, the company's beneficiaries are representatives of the Kazakh elite, including Timur Kulibayev.

According to Abdiyev, this step limited the country’s control over pricing, fuel quality, and energy security.

What did we get? Kazakhstan does not have a single national network of petrol stations. At the same time, a significant share of the country's retail market is occupied by petrol stations of other countries, such as Gazprom. To put it mildly, this is a strategic vulnerability, and to put it bluntly, it is an image disgrace. 

He proposed considering the creation of a new state-owned network operating on market principles, or repurchasing the privatized network and returning it to KazMunayGas.

Original Author: Zhadra Zhulmukhametova