This could be the start of a new trend for so-called petrostates, exacerbated by increasingly cost On market open at 9:30 am Monday March 16,\u00a0WTI Crude<\/strong>\u00a0was down 8.38% at $29.07<\/strong>, while Brent Crude dropped nearly 10% to $31.92. Border closures in Europe and global travel bans \u2013 include those announced by the\u00a0United States<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 have brought oil prices to lows not seen since the doldrums of 2016.<\/p>\n Oil producing countries, including Saudi Arabia<\/strong>, have been talking \u2013 and doing \u2013 a lot, as they recognize the looming dangers of hydrocarbon dependency. Suffice to mention Prince Mohammad bin Salman\u2019s\u00a02030 Program,<\/strong> and efforts in United Arab Emirates and Qatar<\/strong> to diversify into media and finances. Central Asia\u2019s record is more mixed that the Gulf\u2019s.<\/p>\n Kazakhstan, the wealthiest country in Central Asia<\/strong>, is an ideal candidate for an economic diversification in the face of falling oil prices and the rising viability of renewables. The country is home to the 11th largest oil reserves in the world. Energy revenues account for almost half of its GDP, and extractive industries are the primary beneficiary of foreign direct investment. But the landlocked country also boasts some of the highest wind potential on the planet, with moderate solar coverage as well.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ongoing slide in global oil prices \u2013 catalyzed by the novel Coronavirus and fueled by structural issues including excess supply from oil giants like the U.S., Russia and Saudi Arabia, and\u00a0slowing demand growth\u00a0\u2013 is creating a new imperative for hydrocarbon revenue-dependent states to diversify their economies. This is particularly true for the oil and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51,53,49,44],"tags":[52407,69337,66250,69336,66266,43643,54965,42491,66267,52259,67256,43264,69339,53157,69333,69335,69022,69334,15750,69340,69338,69332,53153,42867,66269,54979,48658],"views":107,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enerjigazetesi.ist\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110844"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enerjigazetesi.ist\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enerjigazetesi.ist\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enerjigazetesi.ist\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enerjigazetesi.ist\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110844"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.enerjigazetesi.ist\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110847,"href":"https:\/\/www.enerjigazetesi.ist\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110844\/revisions\/110847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enerjigazetesi.ist\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enerjigazetesi.ist\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enerjigazetesi.ist\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enerjigazetesi.ist\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.enerjigazetesi.ist\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/orta-asyada-dusuk-petrol-fiyatlari-icin-finansman-cozumune-ihtiyac-var.jpg\")
competitive-renewable technologies<\/strong>. Solar, wind, and electric cars are eating into the market share of conventional fuel sources both for transportation and power generation. We are now seeing the beginnings of adoption of green tech throughout the historically fossil-fuel-reliant Central Asia region.<\/p>\nEconomic Diversification Is the Way Forward<\/strong><\/h2>\n