There are plans for cooperation with Kazakhstani companies - President of the Republic of Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso
As earlier reported, President of the Republic of Congo arrived in Kazakhstan to pay an official visit at the invitation of the Head of State, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Denis Sassou Nguesso in exclusive interview with Kazinform News Agency told about plans for BRICS, cooperation with Kazakhstan and oil and gas businesses.
Congo is interested in joining BRICS and developing ties with the group in the BRICS+ format. At the last SCO summit in Astana, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China supports Kazakhstan in joining BRICS. In your opinion, what can Congo and Kazakhstan gain from joining this Association?
First of all, we would like to welcome the emergence of this kind of universal consciousness, which has become an almost unanimous demand for a multipolar world. The realities of today's world are obviously not the same as they were in 1945, when the victors of World War II formulated and established the basic rules of global governance. Most of these rules are outdated today. Today, they do not sufficiently take into account that part of humanity that is commonly called the "Global South", with its particularities. There is a real historical gap here that we need to fill.
In this regard, BRICS, which has been gradually implemented over the past ten years, is actually intended to become a more effective and equitable global response to the problem of common development.
The Republic of Congo, which participated in the last BRICS summit in Johannesburg, strongly supports this innovative approach for developing countries.
We view BRICS as a space for mutually beneficial economic, trade, investment, technological and cultural-humanitarian cooperation with the largest BRICS economies – China, Russia, India, South Africa and Brazil, as well as its new members Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Egypt, with which both Congo and Kazakhstan have established close ties. In any case, we are working on this very seriously.
Congo is the third (after Nigeria and Angola) largest player in the oil and gas sector in Africa. SNPC (Societe nationale des petroles du Congo, National Oil Company of Congo) cooperates with many international companies in the field of production and development of oil refining and petrochemicals. Is there any plan to cooperate with Kazakhstani companies in this area?
Yes! As for oil, there are plans for cooperation with Kazakhstani companies. Our recent visit to your country resulted in a number of agreements. In particular, this is an agreement between KazMunayGas (KMG) and SNPC Group, aimed at strengthening ties between the two companies, facilitating the exchange of know-how, business partnerships and joint initiatives for the sustainable development of their oil and gas businesses.
Indeed, as part of its corporate programme aimed at accelerating its development and that of the energy sector in Congo, SNPC is in the dynamic of sustainable development, continuous improvement and monitoring of the efficiency of its activities through initiatives in line with government policy.
It is in this sense that the National Company must establish strategic, strong and effective partnerships with international companies in order to take advantage of the opportunities opening up in the hydrocarbon sector.
Similar to the cooperation agreements signed with international oil and gas companies from Algeria (SONATRACH), Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and Russia (Rosneft) to develop the oil industry in Congo, SNPC and Kazakhstan's national oil and gas company, KazMunayGas, have expressed their intention to cooperate in the following areas:
• Development of oil and gas assets, as well as provision of technical assistance in the oil and gas industry;
• Establishment of partnerships for the construction of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon processing and storage facilities;
• Development of crude oil trading;
• Training and capacity building of personnel of the National Oil Company of Congo (SNPC).
