KAZAKHASTAN -Profile - Vladimir Shkolnik.

The Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Vladimir Shkolnik is an ethnic Russian formally in charge of the petroleum sector. But with little experience in petroleum, he has far less authority in this sector than the top management of KazMunaiGaz. With a degree as mining engineer, Shkolnik seems to be concentrating on the ministry's Mineral Resources division. His powers have declined gradually since Jan. 28, 2002, when he lost the ranking of deputy premier as a new government was formed under Tasmagambetov.

The advent of KazMunaiGaz (KMG), after the merger of KazakhOil and Trans-NefteGaz (TNG) in February 2002, precipitated the decline of Shkolnik's powers in the petroleum sector. Now KMG, acting as a more powerful parallel, seems to have rendered the ministry irrelevant to the day-to-day affairs of the petroleum sector. It is KMG which initiates decisions and gets Shkolnik to issue them or to submit them to the government for approval.

Timur Kulibayev: Considered intelligent and highly ambitious, Kulibayev is the First Vice President of KMG. He is married to Nazarbayev's second daughter Dinara. Working behind the scenes with his father-in-law, Kulibayev acts as a voice of the president in KMG. In his 30s, began his career in the finance ministry's division which was once in charge of the petroleum sector. In March 1997, as Nazarbayev made Balgimbayev president of KazakhOil, the latter made Kulibayev the financial boss and vice president of the company. The oil and gas firms then were transferred from the finance ministry to KazakhOil. In late 2000 Kulibayev became president of KazTransOil, the oil pipelines division of KazakhOil. In May 2001 he was made president of TNG. The February 2002 merger boosted his position.

Kulibayev makes sure government approval is guaranteed for KMG undertakings. In a way, he has made the government look like a rubber-stamp for KMG. The dominant role of KMG, with the ministry's officials scrambling to show partnership with the company, became clear to representatives from Western oil companies and analysts who gathered in July 2002 at the second Kazakh oil and gas conference in London. One executive from a Western oil producer operating in Kazakhstan said there were fears that KMG will gradually take over the energy and mineral resources ministry's duties, perhaps even making the ministry obsolete.

As a result of the merger, former KazakhOil CEO Nurlan Balgimbayev, a well-known face in the Kazakh oil industry, was sidelined. He left and created his own oil company, with Kulibayev taking on a very public role from then on. Kulibayev, it is said, wants to turn KMG into an empire - but more like Saudi Aramco than Statoil. He will eventually control KMG and get the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to play in the petroleum sector the role that suits this company.