FEB. 22/23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian and Chinese officials met in Tbilisi for the first round of talks aimed at negotiating a free trade agreement between the two countries. China has become an increasingly important trade partner for Georgia. Media said that China is now Georgia’s fourth largest trading partner.
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Local residents of the Talas region in Kyrgyzstan asked the government to halt the development of the Jerooy gold mine because of concerns it was damaging the environment. Last May, Russian miner Vostok-geolodobycha bought the licence to exploit the mine for $100m. Russian businessman Musa Bazhaev owns Vostok-geolodobycha. Analysts have previously said that local grievances over the environment have been exploited to leverage payment from companies developing mines.
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s ruling Republican Party signed a coalition deal with the staunchly anti-Turkey Armenian Revolutionary Federation, also known as Dashnaktsutyun, underlining the Armenian government’s strengthened resistance to improved ties with its neighbour. Under the deal, Dashnaktsutyun, which holds five seats in Armenia’s 131-seat parliament, will have three ministers in government — economy, education and local administration. The Republican Party, the party of President Serzh Sarksyan, holds 70 seats in parliament. There had been some movement in 2012 and 2013 towards reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey.
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iran and Azerbaijan have started negotiations on how to develop the disputed Araz-Alov-Sharg oil project in the Caspian Sea that has lain undeveloped for 18 years.
The talks, part of a visit by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev to Tehran to boost relations, also high- light Iran’s potential to be an important partner in the region now that most international sanctions have been lifted.
The oil and gas website Natural Gas Europe (NGE), quoted two sources close to Azerbaijan-Iran negotiations on talks over the Araz-Alov- Sharg project, which Iran calls Alborz.
It quoted a source close to negotiations as saying that they had “already reached a primary agreement to develop the block jointly, but they had not finalised the details”.
For Western companies any deal between Azerbaijan and Iran to develop the site would create problems.
The SOCAR website still shows off a production sharing agreement for the field signed in 1998 by several Western oil and gas companies including BP, Statoil and Exxon.
That PSA may turn out to be worthless and, if Azerbaijan and Iran can agree on the field’s ownership, may be torn up in favour of a bilateral Azerbaijani-Iranian deal.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – At 19.2km, the Kamchik Pass railway tunnel may be the longest in Central Asia and might also be a great engineering achievement, but it is also a sign of Uzbekistan’s further isolation from world politics and markets.
Uzbekistan said it completed a World Bank and China-backed railway bypass in the Ferghana Valley that will allow its trains to run to the east of the country without having to transit through Tajikistan.
The World Bank support is important because it shows international endorsement for a mega project that Uzbekistan was eager to achieve despite the economic downturn rolling through Central Asia.
Chinese money and workers were key to the success of the project, as China has growing interest in building infrastructure in Central Asia to support its ambitious project to connect with Europe via rail and road.
Tajikistan is the main loser in this game. It will no longer receive the in- kind payment of $25m worth of gas shipments from Uzbekistan in exchange for the railway transit. And it also lost an important diplomatic chip in its endless row with Tashkent.
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(Editorial from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — KAZ Minerals said it will grow production of copper cathode by around 70% in 2016 as new deposits of Bozshakol and Aktogay come online this year. The company plans to produce up to 155,000 tonnes of copper cathode in 2016. KAZ Minerals’ revenues fell by 21% last year compared to 2014. The company received a boost when Kazakhstan decided to abandon the tenge’s peg to the US dollar, leading to a sudden depreciation of the local currency.
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s three-largest telecoms operators paid 24.2% less taxes in 2015 compared to 2014, as an economic downturn worsened and increased competition hit their revenue stream. K-Telecom, owned by Russia’s MTS, is Armenia’s third-largest taxpayer. Its contribution to the budget declined by 36% to 18.6b drams ($38m). Russia’s VimpelCom-owned ArmenTel, one of the top ten taxpayers in Armenia, said its tax contributions fell by 6.2% to 15.5b drams ($31.5m).
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — KMG EP, Kazmunaigas’ subsidiary dedicated to exploration and production, said in a statement it obtained a price increase for oil it ships to refineries at Atyrau and Pavlodar. KMG RM, another Kazmunaigas subsidiary which manages the refineries, will now pay 74% more for shipments of oil to its refinery at Aktau and 16% more for shipments to its refinery at Pavlodar than it did in 2015.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said that it was likely Azerbaijan’s economy would contract in the first quarter of 2016. This would be the first time since the last quarter of 2011 that Azerbaijan’s economy has contracted. For an economy to be considered to be in recession, GDP needs to shrink for two consecutive quarters. The main factor in Azerbaijan’s poor economic outlook is the consistent low oil prices.
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in eastern Uzbekistan sentenced five men to jail for between 5-1/2 and 12 years for various charges linked to religious extremism, media reported. Uzbek officials have said that the threat from radical extremists has intensified although Western human rights groups have said that Uzbek officials are more interested in suppressing dissent than fighting terrorism.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
