Kazakh tycoon gives up stake in major oil trader

Kazakh billionaire businessman Timur Kulibayev has handed to the state energy company his stake of 49 per cent in Petrosun, a large oil and oil products trader controlled by China’s CNPC, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar said on Tuesday.

Petrosun buys and refines the lion’s share of Kazakh crude that is not produced and marketed by Western oil majors, before selling it on the local market.

Sklyar did not give a reason for the decision by Kulibayev, a son-in-law of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev. Kulibayev could not be immediately reached for comment.

In April, another Nazarbayev relative, his nephew Kairat Satybaldy, handed to the government a stake of 29 per cent in telecoms firm Kazakhtelecom after being arrested on charges of embezzlement and abuse of office.

Nazarbayev, who resigned in 2019 but had retained sweeping powers as the head of security council, lost that position during violent unrest in January.

His successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has since set up a panel to tackle monopolies and seize assets seen to have been privatised improperly.