USA and Kazakhstan sign deal on energy cooperation

An agreement on cooperation between the USA and Kazakhstan in the energy sector was signed in Washington on 12 September. The document envisages joint work in the oil, gas and power engineering sectors and cooperation in environmental protection. US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Kazakh Energy Minister Vladimir Shkolnik affixed their signatures to the document.
They held a meeting of the working group on energy cooperation. The group was set up last December. It is the first ministerial- level meeting to discuss cooperation in the energy sector, Shkolnik told.

When the meeting was concluded, the corresponding document on cooperation was signed, determining objectives for the next 12 months. Besides, another agreement was signed on extracting ground for studies to solve some Kazakh gas problems, including transportation.
The two countries agreed to use up-to-date power-saving technologies in Kazakhstan's agriculture and construction.

In the oil and gas sector, the USA and Kazakhstan will cooperate in working out technologies, maintaining Kazakhstan's oil resources, searching for new oil and gas fields and restoring, with the use of up-to-date technologies, old fields believed earlier to be exhausted.
The two countries also agreed to cooperate in working out technical strategies to protect oil and gas facilities. "We'd like to do in the oil and gas industry, in our common fight against terrorism, what we did in the nuclear sector in the past 10 years," the Kazakh minister said.