That England could thrash Kazakhstan 5-1 at Wembley on Saturday came as no surprise to most Kazakhs, but they know that their homeland has other strengths, notably in its huge natural resources, such as oil, gas, uranium, gold and a massive potential in agriculture.

Rather than football, the national passion is combat sports, such as boxing and wrestling, an interest shared by Timur Kulibayev, a tycoon who is widely tipped within the Central Asian republic as a likely successor to President Nazarbayev. Aged 42, Mr Kulibayev has amassed a fortune in banking and in the oil sector. Last year Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at more than $2 billion, although it has probably decreased in the recent market rout.

Mr Kulibayev says that the credit crunch has hit Kazakhstan hard, forcing the Government to intervene heavily when the country’s banks could not refinance about $40 billion (£23.5 billion) in loans. He owns a controlling share in Halyk Bank, one of the country’s largest financial institutions, but he is also a director of Samruk, the state holding company, which manages state-owned assets such as KazMunaiGaz, the national energy company. He is chairman of KazEnergy, the oil industry association, and chairman of Kegoc, the electricity grid. As if that were not enough to ensure a seat at Kazakhstan’s top table, he is also married to one of the President’s daughters.

The credit crunch is only the latest in a wave of foreign crises to affect Kazakhstan. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, visited Astana, the Kazakh capital, last week for talks during which she expressed her concern about Kazakhstan’s commitment to the trans-Caucasus export route for Kazakh oil.

Kazakhstan’s oil output will surge over the next decade, with expansions planned in two big fields – Tengiz and Karachaganak – as well as the first oil from the giant Kashagan field. Kazakh oil is exported mainly through the Russian pipeline system, but it has also been agreed to export oil through Georgia, shipping oil to Baku and then using BP’s pipeline that links the Caspian port in Azerbaijan to Turkey. The recent conflict in Georgia has raised questions about its security.

Mr Kulibayev said that Kazakhstan was committed to the Caucasus corridor but that its immediate priority was to expand CPC, an oil pipeline that crosses Russian territory to the Black Sea. He expressed doubts about the prospect for stronger links across the Caspian, notably a proposal for pipelines that would connect Kazakh oil or Turkmen gas directly with BP’s gas and oil pipelines to Turkey and then into Europe.

“The legal status of the Caspian Sea has not been regulated, and you know that Iran and Russia have differences in their positions,” Mr Kulibayev said. “The construction of an oil pipeline or gas pipeline across the Caspian Sea is not possible. So, initially, we have to resort to diplomatic efforts to resolve the status of the Sea. For the time being, Russian direction and Chinese direction are most viable.”

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