Kazakhstan to amend legislation on subsoil use

Kazakh Energy Ministry plans to hold an auction for 25 subsoil plots by the end of the year, said Vice Minister Zhumabai Karagayev. He also told journalists about the initiative of amending the Code “On subsoil and subsoil use”. According to him, the amendments are aimed at improving the transparency of electronic auctions for granting the right to subsoil use for hydrocarbon raw materials. The amendments resulted from the last two auctions. In the first one, the winners were determined for eight subsoil plots. The total amount of the signing bonus reached 61 billion tenge. As a result of the second auction, it amounted to about 9.3 billion tenge for ten subsoil plots. This money went to the budget, Karagayev noted.

“Payment of a guarantee deposit by the auction participants in the amount of not less than the starting size of the signing bonus; if the winner of the auction fails to pay the final amount of the signing bonus, the second participant is recognized as the winner of the auction. The issue of lifting the restriction on holding the auction no more than two times a year is considered. A special working group was created with the participation of interested government agencies, subsoil users and industry associations,” the vice minister said.

 

Translation by Saniya Sakenova

Editing by Galiya Khassenkhanova