Energy policy of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan owns large reserves of energy resources, and therefore the energy policy of Kazakhstan has influence over the world's overall energy supply. Although Kazakhstan has not described itself as an energy superpower, Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev has claimed Kazakhstan will become a factor of energy security in Asia and Europe. Kazakhstan has a strategic geographical location to control oil and gas flows from Central Asia to East (China) and West (Russia, global market).

Kazakhstan is a partner country of the EU INOGATE energy programme, which has four key topics: enhancing energy security, of member state energy markets on the basis of EU internal energy market principles, supporting sustainable energy development, and attracting investment for energy projects of common and regional interest.

On January 1, 2013, Kazakhstan became the first country in Central Asia to launch an economy-wide carbon emissions system to cap emissions from its biggest emitters in the energy, coal, oil and gas extraction sectors.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources was the responsible governmental agency for energy policies until March 2010 when it was dissolved and replaced by the Ministry of Oil and Gas and the Ministry for Industry and New Technologies.

In June 2003, the government of Kazakhstan announced a new Caspian Sea development program, according to which new offshore blocks of oil and gas to be auctioned. In 2005, the government introduced new restrictions granting to the state-owned oil and gas company KazMunayGas status of contractor and at least half of any production sharing agreement (PSA). New tax structure, enforced in January 2004, included a so-called "rent tax" on exports, a progressive tax that increases as oil prices grow. The amendment raised the government's share of oil income to a range of 65-85%.The new structure includes an excess profit tax, and limits foreign participation to 50 percent in each offshore project with no guarantees of operatorship.

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