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12 I Companies & Markets bne October 2018
destinations and volumes of oil exports. Millions of barrels of Iranian oil were unaccounted without the trackers.
Almost 200,000 barrels a day of the country’s post-sanctions oil sales could be undisclosed, Robin Mills, chief executive officer of consultancy Qamar Energy in Dubai, told Bloom- berg on September 3. “Exports at these levels will be impor- tant in cushioning the financial blow to Iran, but will not have a major impact on the world market.”
UK court overturns decision to force Kazakh ENRC to hand over documents
to prosecutors
bne IntelliNews
AUK appeals court has overturned a decision forcing Kazakh mining company Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) to hand over
documents to prosecutors.
ENRC is suspected of using bribery to acquire mines in Kazakhstan and Africa. In July, the mining tycoons who founded ENRC accused their own lawyer of conspiring with the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to incriminate them and fleece them for millions of pounds. Some observers believe the case brought up two months ago was aimed at stretching out the criminal proceedings against the ENRC founders and frustrating efforts to bring criminal charges against them.
In late June, an arrest warrant was issued for the CEO of the trio’s restructured group, Eurasian Resources Group (ERG). After investigations against ENRC were launched in 2013, the founding oligarchs – Alexander Machkevitch, Alijan Ibragimov, and Patokh Chodiyev – formed ERG. They and the Kazakh government took the company private in 2013 in a $4.5bn buyout, after the investigations into corruption allegations began. The newly restructured group claims to have zero tolerance of corruption.
ERG currently stands as the world's largest ferrochrome producer by chrome content and one of the key producers of iron ore and alumina worldwide. It represents more than 4% of Kazakhstan’s GDP and about one-third of its metals and
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The news agency’s report also noted that China, Turkey and India would likely continue to buy Iranian oil after the resumption of sanctions, with China’s smaller refineries taking some of the murky, undisclosed shipments, according to Iman Nasseri, managing director of the Middle East at FGE London. In total, Iran could export 800,000 b/d well into 2019, including some 20,000 barrels sent by trucks to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, he said.
mining industry. It is also a principal supplier of electricity there. The main production assets of ERG in Kazakhstan
are: TNC Kazchrome, the Sokolov-Sarbai Mining Production Association (SSGPO), Aluminium of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Aluminium Smelter (KAS), Eurasian Energy Corporation (EEC), Shubarkol Komir and Transcom LLP.
The formerly FTSE 100-listed company’s founders accuse London lawyer Neil Gerrard, who works for Dechert LLP, of plotting with the SFO to leak details of a private investigation into an ENRC whistleblower that Gerrard was originally hired for by the trio. Moreover, they claim Gerrard blew the details of his findings out of proportion. Gerrard refutes the conspiracy hypothesis.
ENRC’s current lawyers are demanding that the SFO disclose their emails, calendar entries, notebooks and phone records.
“ENRC is suspected of using bribery to acquire mines in Kazakhstan and Africa”