The president of NOC KAZAKHOL offers two ways of regulating domestic oil market

/IRBIS, Dec.6, 00/ - The Great Silk Road World News Agency informs, that according to Mr. Balgimbaev, the problem with the load of domestic refineries with sufficient crude oil can be solved in two ways. First, legislative and normative acts should be passed to oblige companies to supply a certain portion of produced oil to the internal market. Second, volume of refining should be increased in a market way by gradually bringing internal prices for oil products to the level at which the profit received by oil producing companies from oil refining and further marketing of oil products will be equal to the profit received from crude export to foreign countries. "This means", explains Kazakhoil's president, "that the internal oil product market will be regulated through increasing attractiveness of the market for all oil producing companies, rather than through a directive regulation of companies' activities." However, says Mr. Balgimbaev, this may affect other branches, such as agriculture. The official suggests that the government develop an efficient scheme of grain purchases from producers at prices which are as close to the world prices as possible, not excluding, though, the possibility of subsidizing the agricultural sector from the budget. Moreover, the state should stimulate the creation of vertically integrated companies, controlling oil production and refining, and marketing of oil products. In fact, says Kazakhoil's executive, some of such structures - Kazakhoil and Atyrau refinery, Mangistaumunaigaz and Pavlodar refinery, Hurricane and Shymkent refinery - have been already formed in Kazakhstan.