TotalEnergies, Alstom sign deals during Macron’s Kazakhstan trip

TotalEnergies SE signed a deal to help develop a wind farm in Kazakhstan and Alstom SA reached one on potentially manufacturing electric trains, as President Emmanuel Macron concluded a visit to the nation before heading to neighboring Uzbekistan on Thursday.

Additional agreements included setting up a branch of France’s sustainable development agency, French language activities and geological research, according to a statement Wednesday from the government in Paris. Macron and his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev are meeting in Astana.

Macron’s tour in resource-rich Central Asia is aimed at boosting France’s energy security, according to two people familiar with the French president’s thinking, who asked not to be identified discussing diplomatic matters. The efforts are in keeping with a wider European effort to diversify away from Russian fossil fuels on which the bloc relied.

French nuclear company Orano SA, formerly known as Areva, is already exploiting uranium deposits in Kazakhstan through a joint venture with state-owned Kazatomprom. The country is the largest supplier of the material that powers France’s extensive atomic reactor fleet.

Kazakhstan’s Samruk-Kazyna wealth fund said on its website that its management met with Orano Chief Operating Officer Nicolas Maes to discuss their KATCO joint venture, while the French side proposed possible joint strategic projects outside Kazakhstan.

Details of some of the agreements signed Wednesday include:

• TotalEnergies, Samruk-Kazyna, KazMunayGaz pact to create Aktas Energy LLP for a 1.2 gigawatt wind project called Mirnyi
• Alstom, Kazakh government for “strategic investments” for possible electric locomotive production
• Boehringer-Ingelheim GmbH, Kazbiopharm letter of intent for foot-and-mouth vaccine manufacturing