ASTANA -- Kazakh Energy Minister Almasadam Satqaliev has warned citizens of the oil-rich country of an expected increase of liquefied gas prices in the coming months as the government looks to avoid a repeat of deadly mass protests that took place in January 2022 after an energy price hike.
Satqaliev told journalists after a government meeting on April 19 that the increase is part of a policy to allow liquified gas prices to gradually "reach their market price."
A sharp, unannounced increase of liquified gas prices in December 2021 led to unprecedented anti-government protests a month later that turned into mass unrest, leaving at least 238 people, including 19 law enforcement officers, dead.
"Liquefied gas is being sold in our country for 50 tenges ($0.11) per liter while its market price should be 70 tenges per liter. Involved companies are losing money. To compare, in Russia the price is twice as much as in Kazakhstan.... That's because prices there have been regulated by the market," Satqaliev said.
Shortly before Satqaliev's statement, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev justified a recent increase of gasoline and diesel fuel prices in the country by citing a general increase in global market prices.
In recent weeks, several protests against the fuel price hikes took place across some regions in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic.
Almaty-based political analyst Dosym Satpaev told RFE/RL that the situation with the increase of fuel prices may turn into a bigger social problem in the country as it coincides with a new wave of protests by oil workers in the restive southwestern town of Zhanaozen.
It was protests in Zhanaozen in December 2021 that turned into nationwide anti-government protests.
Satpaev emphasized that since obtaining independence in 1991, Kazakh authorities had fully liquidated independent unions who could play a mediating role between workers and employers or officials, which led to the situation where workers have no other choice than demonstrating.