| The prospect of lay-offs in the oil sector triggers painful memories of a month-long oil workers’ strike in Zhanaozen in 2011 that ended in bloody clashes with police. That episode was one of the darkest moments in its post-Soviet history for Kazakhstan, and also for Mr Kulibayev. As head of Samruk-Kazyna, the sovereign wealth fund that ultimately owned the oilfields where the strikes took place, he took much of the blame and was publicly sacked by the president.
Oil output in Kazakhstan, the world’s 18th-largest producer, is set to fall 1.6 per cent this year and may fall 10 per cent next year in a low-price scenario, government officials have warned...............................................Full Article: Source
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