APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s deputy PM, Abdyrakhman Mamataliev, said there were now 330 Kyrgyz nationals fighting for the radical IS group in Syria. It’s not possible to confirm this number, but if it is accurate this would be a major worry for Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Uzbekistan may be lining up an extension to the prison sentence handed out to Uzbek activist Azam Farmonov. It said Farmonov had been due for release in a few days, after nearly a decade in jail on extortion charges, but that he has instead been moved to a punishment cell.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan and Armenia blamed each other for more clashes along the border of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan said that five Armenian soldiers had been killed in shootouts; the Armenia-backed government in Nagorno-Karabakh said that one Azerbaijani soldier had been killed.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – French President Francois Hollande will visit Baku for talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on April 25, media reported. France has developed strong business links with Azerbaijan, especially in transport.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan extended a ban on the import of Russian oil products by an extra month until May 20. An original 45-day ban had been due to end on April 20. Kazakhstan imposed the ban because an imbalance in the Russian rouble-Kazakh tenge exchange rate has triggered an influx of cheap Russian oil products.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Georgian parliamentary delegation visited Kiev in an overt show of support for Ukraine’s pro-West government. The Kiev government is battling rebels in the east of Ukraine.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Another Georgian national has been killed fighting for Ukrainian government forces against pro-Russia rebels in east Ukraine, Georgian media reported. It’s unclear exactly how many Georgians have been killed in Ukraine but some media say that it is probably as many as seven.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Taking a conciliatory approach, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey would mark the 100th anniversary of the killings of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turks with a ceremony in Istanbul for the first time. This a concession by Turkey, although it refuses to call the killings a genocide.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Dragon Oil, a small London-listed oil producer, increased output at its operation in Turkmenistan by 23% in Q1 2015 compared to Q1 2014, it said. Average production at its Cheleken field was just over 88,000 barrels a day between Jan. 1 and March 31.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tengizchevroil, Kazakhstan’s largest oil producer and one of its most successful post-Soviet energy projects, said that it was slowing expansion plans in response to the drop in global oil prices.
The announcement is yet more disappointing news for Kazakhstan. It is trying to cope with a sharp economic downturn triggered by the combined impact of the fall in oil prices and also the Western-imposed sanctions on Russia which have had a knock-on effect in the rest of the former Soviet Union.
“Global oil prices have dropped significantly, so we responded by slowing the project down and cutting spending for 2015,” reports quoted Aidar Dosbayev, head of production at Tengizchevroil, as saying at a conference.
Tengizchevroil is vitally important to Kazakhstan. It wants to become one of the world’s top energy producers although the much-delayed Kashagan project has dented its ambitions. And the delay in starting up Kashagan has meant Kazakhstan’s oil output hinges on Tengizchevroil.
Tengizchvroil had said it planned an expansion that would boost output to 38m tonnes of oil a year by 2019, up from around 27m tonnes.
The oil price drop, though, has slowed planes, Mr Dosbayev said.
“Although we slow down the pace of the project and reduce costs, our commitments to Kazakhstan remain unchanged,” he said.
In the short-term, though, Kazakhstan’s income from the project will be reduced and job creation will be limited.
Chevron owns 50% of Tengizchevroil, ExxonMobil owns 25%, Kazmunaigas owns 20% and Lukoil owns 5%.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
