Kazaks Complain of Unfair Ship Tariffs

Kazakstan should invest in its own ports rather than retaliate against

its Caspian competitors' imposition of higher tariffs on Kazak ships

using their ports, say NBCentralAsia experts.



Uzakbai Karabalin, head of the national oil and gas company

KazMunaiGas, announced on February 13 that "discriminatory tariffs"

were applied to Kazak ships by Russian and Azerbaijani ports in the

Caspian Sea.



Kazakstan's biggest shipping company is Kazmortransflot, half of which

is owned by KazMunaiGas.



According to Karabaldin, Kazmortransflot's ships from Kazakstan pay

36,000 US dollars to dock in Baku, while similar Azerbaijani vessels

pay 12,500 dollars to dock in the Kazak port of Aktau.



He has also noted that in contrast to other Caspian countries,

Kazakstan charges Kazak ships the same as it levies foreign ones - but

he believes that tariff policy should be more favourable towards

Kazmortransflot to make it more competitive on international markets.



But analyst Kanat Berentaev, a fellow of the Almaty-based Centre for

the Analysis of Public Issues, says that while raising foreign ship

tariffs may make Kazmortransflot more competitive, it could increase

costs for Kazak oil exporters.



"Currently, Kazmortransflot transports only a half of Kazak oil

exports, all the rest is transported by foreign ships...therefore,

increasing tariffs on foreign ship services

will lead to a rise in oil transportation costs which will decrease

the income of domestic oil companies," he said.



Professor Nadir Nadirov, general director of Kazak scientific and

research centre, Oil, suggests that differences in tariff charges in

Caspian ports should depend on how well developed they are.

Aktau port is considered to be new and relatively quiet, while Baku is

bigger and serves more ships. Nadirov suggests that

Aktau should improve its infrastructure to attract more ships before

it begins to review its tariff policy.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad

range of political observers across the region.)