MARCH 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The number of Russian tourists going to Azerbaijan for holidays will increase by 50% according to calculations by Russian financial newspaper Kommersant. Due to diplomatic sanctions against Turkey, the Russian government banned Turkey as a holiday destination for its citizens.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
MARCH 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company SOCAR said it applied for a $450m loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help pay for the expansion of its Shah Deniz gas project.
The loan, according to both ADB and SOCAR, is aimed at financing the second phase of the project, which the company plans to bring online by 2018. Shah Deniz is core to Azerbaijan’s future gas plans.
BP, which develops the field together with SOCAR, said the expansion of the Shah Deniz project will cost around $28b and will add 16b cubic metres annually to the current production of around 10b cubic metres.
Gas produced at Shah Deniz 2 is already booked for export to Georgia and Turkey in 2018 and further on to Europe by 2019, with the completion of the Southern Gas Corridor.
Unnamed ADB sources told Natural Gas Europe: “It is in the processing stage. Once approved, the loan will be provided under the state guarantees.”
There was no information on the timeline of the loan.
SOCAR, hit by sustained low oil prices, has applied to various sources for financing and has sought to divest from some of its unprofitable ventures to raise cash for its core projects.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
APRIL 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Nostrum Oil & Gas has suffered a long period of sustained low oil prices, which has hit both its revenues and its stock price.
Nostrum’s revenues fell by a staggering 42% last year, accompanied in the downward trend by lower production volumes.
And, as shown in the graph, Nostrum’s share price has continued to fall, down 48.7% in Q1 2016.
Nostrum, however, remains confident about its long term objectives and pointed out in its full year results that it had cut costs and was investing in its processing capacity.
It made no mention of the failed takeover offer for Tethys Petroleum of last summer, which hit Nostrum’s share price, especially after Tethys started talks with Kazakhstan’s Olisol last November.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
MARCH 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Russian Duma ratified an inter- governmental agreement to pardon most of Uzbekistan’s debt. Uzbekistan will now pay $25m of its $889m debt to Russia but it will also withdraw any claims to the Soviet Diamond Fund which contains some of the world’s most expensive jewellery from the Tsarist era. Russia and Uzbekistan agreed to scrap the debt in November 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
MARCH 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Azerbaijan converted a seven-year prison sentence into a five-year conditional one for human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev, allowing his immediate release. Mr Aliyev had already spent two years in prison. His release follows the release of 14 political prisoners earlier this month. The West has criticised Azerbaijan for its crack- down on free speech.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
MARCH 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Data on economic activity in Azerbaijan showed a sharp slowdown after the government abandoned the currency peg to the US dollar in December, a move that triggered a 30% drop in the value of the manat currency.
Azerbaijan imported markedly less wheat and cars, both good indicators of domestic demand.
In January, imports of wheat fell by 55.8% to 47.95m tonnes, as businesses found it increasingly more difficult to pay for their orders in foreign currency.
Total car imports in January and February this year were just 821 units, barely a tenth of the total during the same period in 2015.
Also, Azerbaijan’s State Statistics Committee said that the country had generated 6.4% less power in the first two months of the year compared to the same period last year. Thermal power production, Azerbaijan’s main source of electricity, was down nearly 8%, suggesting that demand from consumers and businesses had dropped — another indicator of the sharp economic downturn.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
MARCH 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The mayor of Uzbekistan’s capital, Rakhmonbek Usmonov, ordered officials to shut down tram lines across the city and sell most of the ageing trolley cars. The city administration had already started dismantling some of the lines. Almaty, in Kazakhstan, has also said it is phasing out its Soviet-era tram system.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
MARCH 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked former energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik immediately after a parliamentary election. This was part of a government reshuffle that switched several top-bureaucrats in government and local administrations. Mr Shkolnik, the highest-profile government official to be sacked, was replaced by power sector veteran Kanat Bozumbayev.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
MARCH 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered a massive military exercise to check the readiness of Turkmenistan’s army. The exercise involved land, aerial and naval forces. Recent skirmishes along the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan border may have prompted the decision to call a large-scale show of strength.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
MARCH 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz Central Bank continues to buy US dollars in the currency market because demand for foreign currency is shrinking and, the Bank’s chief Tolkunbek Abdygulov told a press conference, people and businesses need improved som liquidity. The Central Bank bought around $62m in March.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
