SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian energy companies Lukoil and Bashneft will supply Kazakhstan with extra petrol and diesel fuel to make up for the current shortfall, Russian news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Russia’s energy minister, Alexander Novak, as saying. Kazakhstan has a shortage of refinery capacity which is causing shortages.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Dushanbe sentenced on Sept. 26 two ethnic Uzbeks to nine years in jail for fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan.Tajikistan’s government has said it is increasingly worried about the spread north of Taliban fighters.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ukraine’s conflict and the alleged Russian involvement in arming separatists have made Georgia more wary of Russia, Georgian deputy PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili told Reuters. Georgia and Russia have been trying to mend relations since they fought a war in 2008.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s top state-sponsored Muslim cleric, chief mufti Saidmukarram Abdulkodirzoda, has issued a fatwa against people criticising the government, AFP news agency reported. He said criticising the government should be considered a sin. Opponents said that this underlined government control over society.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Torture in Uzbek prisons is still endemic, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report. Out of 44 former and current prisoners interviewed for the report, HRW said that 29 were tortured. Uzbekistan has said it is eliminating torture from its prisons and that officers who beat inmates are prosecuted.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a show of mutual support, Russian president Vladimir Putin travelled to Atyrau in west Kazakhstan after a meeting of Caspian Sea littoral states in Russia to meet with Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev. Russia is looking for allies over its stand-off with the West over intervention in Ukraine.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The IMF cut its growth estimate for Armenia to 2.6% this year from 3.6% earlier and to 3.3% in 2015, down from an earlier estimate of 4.3%.The downgrades are in line with other agencies who adjusted Armenia’s growth figures downwards because of the impact of sanctions on Russia’s economy.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Jailed Azerbaijani human rights activist and government critic Anar Mammadli has won the prestigious Vaclav Havel Prize from the Council of Europe. Mammadli is the director of the Baku-based Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center. He was imprisoned last year for tax evasion.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Japan has signed a deal to help build local infrastructure projects in Azerbaijan such as improving basic drinking water access in villages, media reported. This may show that Japan is trying to increase its participation in the South Caucasus.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Spanish natural gas provider Enagas bought a 16% stake in the TAP pipeline that will pump gas from the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea to central Europe.
The purchase of the shares, a 10% stake from France’s Total and a 6% stake from Germany’s E.ON underline how important European countries consider the project to be.
Belgium’s Fluxys also increased its stake to 19%. The other shareholders in TAP are BP, Norway’s Statoil and Azerbaijani energy company SOCAR all with 20% of the project. Swiss energy company Axpo also owns 5% of TAP.
Reuters quoted Kjetil Tungland, TAP’s managing director.
“The TAP joint venture has always been open to new strategic partners,” he said.
“Enagas … will help to enhance TAP’s strategic position as a truly European project that will transport a new source of gas to the continent’s energy markets.”
The pipeline is scheduled for completion in 2018. European countries consider it an essential piece of infrastructure development to diversify their gas deliveries away from Russia, through which most of its gas was being delivered.
The plan is for TAP to run 870km from the Shah Deniz II field in the Caspian Sea to the Turkey-Greece border. There it will connected to another pipeline called TANAP which will pump the gas through the Balkans and across to Italy. From Italy the gas can be re-distributed across Europe.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
