Hidrocarburos en Kazajastán: nuevas realidades y enfoques para el estudio de las relaciones energéticas de Asia Central

Abstract

Since 1994 much has been said about the potential of the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia as hydrocarbon exporters. However, as we will argue in the paper, most of those analyses are founded on in two outdated premises: a) that the energy relations are like the ones that the Dichotomous Energy Paradigm (DEP) describes - Producer countries vs. Consumer countries-, and b) that the role and goals of the Producer countries in the world economy are still the same as than the ones they had in the 1970s. After explaining why those premises are outdated, the goal of the paper will be threefold: a) to show why the hydrocarbons of Central Asia constitute a new type of case of study in the contemporaneous world economy; b) to describe which are actually the energy relations in Kazakhastan and which could be the future pattern of alliances with the world International Oil Companies (IOC) and National Oil Companies (NOC), from both consumer and producer countries; and c) from this case of study, to infer which might be some of the constitutive elements of a new energy paradigm -more focused on the idea of an energy Governance Structure than on the DEP.