Kazakhstan May Lose $1.2 Billion in Revenue With Oil at $25

By Nariman Gizitdinov

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Kazakhstan’s budget revenue may be 150 billion tenge ($1.24 billion) less than forecast next year should crude oil trade at $25 a barrel for “an extended period,” the economy minister said.

The Economy Ministry has ordered a list of budget programs that may be delayed into next year, Bakhyt Sultanov told a government meeting in the capital, Astana, today, according to an e-mailed copy of his speech.

Last month, the government cut planned 2009 spending by 7 percent to 3.43 trillion tenge ($28.5 billion) as energy prices declined amid the global financial turmoil. The revised budget was based on an average annual oil price of $40 a barrel.

The economy of the Central Asian country, holder of 3.2 percent of the world’s oil reserves according to BP Plc, may expand by 1 percent next year after a decade of growth averaging about 10 percent a year, according to the government.

Kazakhstan doesn’t plan to cut oil production next year, Yuliana Zhikhor, an Astana-based spokeswoman for the Economy Ministry, said by telephone today. Output will advance next year to 79.2 million metric tons from 67.3 million tons, the ministry said in September.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nariman Gizitdinov in Almaty, through the Moscow newsroom at ngizitdinov@bloomberg.net