Tag Archives: Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan frees Ismayilova

MAY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Supreme Court in Azerbaijan unexpectedly freed investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova from prison, marking a major victory for human rights and free speech activists.

Ms Ismayilova was the most high- profile journalist imprisoned in Azerbaijan over the last few years in a crackdown by the authorities on the media and opposition activists. She had worked for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, hosted a popular radio programme and reported on corruption allegations against President Ilham Aliyev.

The Supreme Court scrapped charges against Ms Ismayilova for misappropriation of property and abuse of power but upheld other charges of tax evasion and illegal entrepreneurship. Importantly it reduced the original sentence of 7-1⁄2 years handed down in September 2015 to a 3-1⁄2 year suspended sentence. Ms Ismayilova had been arrested and imprisoned since December 2014.

Wearing a huge smile, Ms Ismayilova emerged from her prison in Baku, to face the media. She was as defiant as ever.

“My arrest was solely for political reasons as President Aliyev and his clique wanted to get rid of any criticism against them,” she said.

Later, in an interview with RFE/RL, Ms Ismayilova said that she would continue to work as an investigative journalist. The authorities, though, have said that Ms Ismayilova is not allowed to work as a journalist during her suspended sentence.

The Azerbaijani authorities appear to have had a change of heart regarding dozens of activists they have arrested over the past few years. They allowed human rights activists Arif and Leyla Yunus to leave the country earlier this month and in March gave amnesty to a dozen or so activists.

An economic downturn, triggered by a collapse in oil prices has hit Azerbaijan hard. Observers said the authorities in Azerbaijan may have decided to back down over the West’s demands to relax their hardline approach in favour of improved ties.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

BP agrees Caspian Sea exploration deal with Azerbaijani company

MAY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP and Azerbaijan’s state-owned SOCAR signed a deal to jointly explore for oil in a new block at the offshore North Absheron Basin in the Caspian Sea, a sign that BP is taking a long-term approach to Azerbaijan despite the low global oil prices.

The North Absheron Basin is an oil field located just north of Baku. It should not be confused with the Absheron gas field located 100 km south of Baku and currently exploited by France’s Total and GDF Suez together with SOCAR. Absheron is the name of the peninsula where Baku is located.

SOCAR CEO Rovnag Abdullayev and BP’s regional representative Gordon Birrell said they were satisfied.

“Today we are signing a new memorandum of understanding which will lay the foundation of a new off- shore project. This will become another opportunity underpinning our long-term relationship with BP,” Mr Abdullayev said before Mr Birrell echoed his remarks.

Details on the deal are scant. Block D230 in the North Absheron Basin has a reservoir depth of 3,000-5,000 metres. It is still unclear just how much hydrocarbon resources it holds and how much both companies will have to invest to make it profitable.

The deal is also important in other respects. It allows SOCAR to reinforce its ties with BP, sharply criticised in the last few months by President Ilham Aliyev for failing to maintain oil and gas production.

The latest data showed that BP’s oil output was flat in the first quarter of 2016, compared to last year, while gas production grew by 3.8% to 2.7b cubic metres in the same period.

Sustained low oil prices over the past two years have taken a toll on SOCAR, which has embarked on a campaign to cut costs and sell off assets. SOCAR, though, appears ready to commit to new exploration ventures. Earlier this month it also agreed a deal with Uzbekistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Azerbaijani and Georgian delegation to attend ceremony TAP construction start

MAY 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan and Georgia sent a delegation to Greece for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), part of a network of pipelines that will pump gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe, in a show of support for a project that the European Union considers vitally important.

Georgia’s PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili and Azerbaijan’s deputy PM Yagub Eyyubov attended the inauguration event with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, European Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and Special Envoy at the US State Department Amos Hochstein.

“Georgia, as a transit country, reiterates its commitments to the diversification of energy supplies to Europe and expresses supports for existing and future energy projects connected to the Southern Gas Corridor,” Mr Kvirikashvili said.

The so-called Southern Gas Corridor, a network of pipelines, is scheduled to be completed in 2019 and will send 16b cubic metres of gas to Europe every year.

TAP will ship 10b cubic metres from Greece’s border with Turkey across the Adriatic Sea to Italy. From there it will be pumped to central Europe.

Mr Kvirikashvili said the project “creates a new dimension for economic cooperation and for the security in the region.”

Azerbaijan is an integral part of the project. The Corridor’s pipelines will be filled with gas from its major fields, chiefly Shah Deniz.

Azerbaijan is also invested in the construction and management of the pipelines. SOCAR, the state energy company, owns 20% of TAP. BP (20%), Snam (20%), Fluxys (16%), Enagas (16%) and Axpo (5%) consti- tute the remaining shareholders.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents meet and extend Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire

MAY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, and Serzh Sargsyan, Armenia’s president, agreed to maintain a ceasefire over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region where violent clashes erupted at the beginning of April (May 16).

This was the first time the two presidents had met since four days of clashes killed dozens of people and alarmed international policymakers.

Diplomats from the US, Russia and France, including US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, also participated in the meeting in Vienna.

“The Presidents reiterated their commitment to the ceasefire and the peaceful settlement of the conflict,” the mediators said in a joint statement.

Mr Aliyev and Mr Sargsyan agreed to meet again in June to track the process of the settlement of the conflict.

The importance of the meeting was not the bland statement but the fact that the two presidents were already meeting and talking. The violence had threatened to destabilise the South Caucasus region, which hosts vital pipelines pumping gas to Europe and borders both Russia and Iran, worrying international leaders and policymakers.

Nagorno-Karabakh is officially part of Azerbaijan, but also home to a large Armenian population. An estimated 30,000 people died in fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s. Only a shaky 1994 UN-brokered ceasefire held the peace.

An Armenia-backed army now controls Nagorno-Karabakh, although Azerbaijan has also said it will retake the region.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Editorial: European gas

MAY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Construction work on the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) has begun. It will link the Azerbaijani and Turkish sections of the so-called Southern Gas Corridor to Greece and Italy.

The Southern Gas Corridor is the EU and the US’ pet project and will bring Azerbaijani gas to Europe.

This is the culmination of years of planning and fending off rival projects, Russian and European.

But the fundamentals of the energy sector have changed dramatically in the past couple of years. The oil price collapse means that profit margins have dropped through the floor, making it near impossible to invest in major infrastructure projects.

That is unless you’re working on the Southern Gas Corridor. The point is not that the Southern Gas Corridor is more profitable than other pipelines, it isn’t, but that politics is more important than economics on this project.

The drivers of the project want to reduce Europe’s reliance on Russia for gas.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan sign energy deal

MAY 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani and Uzbek state-owned energy companies signed a memorandum of understanding to explore and exploit oil and gas fields in Uzbekistan. SOCAR’s president Rovnag Abdullayev and Uzbekneftegaz’s chairman Alisher Sultanov met in Tashkent on the sidelines of an international oil and gas conference to sign the deal. It is perhaps telling that with oil prices so low, the Azerbaijani and Uzbek governments are having to fund development of their oil and gas sectors themselves.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Total wants to sell stake in Azerbaijani project

MAY 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — French energy company Total asked for help from the Azerbaijani government with selling its share of gas from the Absheron field in the Caspian Sea, a source close to the deal told Natural Gas Europe. Total has not commented. Total said it will start production at the Absheron field in 2021 and has yet to sign export contracts for its gas.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Azerbaijani cargo plane crashes

MAY 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – An Antonov-12 cargo plane operated by Azerbaijan’s Silk Way Airlines crashed on take-off at Dwyer airport in south Afghanistan on Wednesday evening, media reported. Seven of the nine crew members were killed in the crash. The authorities later identified the dead as the Uzbek pilot, five Azerbaijani crew members and one Ukrainian technician. Two Ukrainians survived.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Azerbaijan’s oil fund avoids VTB offer

MAY 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — SOFAZ, Azerbaijan’s sovereign oil fund, said it has no intention of increasing its 2.95% share in Russia’s VTB Bank, a sign, perhaps, that the economic downturn has bitten into Azerbaijan’s ability to buy assets abroad. SOFAZ has previously been increasing the size of equity stakes it owns in various companies. Earlier in May, the Russian government said it was looking for buyers to reduce its stake in VTB. VTB is the second largest bank in Russia and owns subsidiaries across the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Azerbaijani energy company nears deal to buy Greek gas network

MAY 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company, could be close to securing a deal with Italy’s Snam to unlock its stalled purchase of the Greek gas distributor DESFA.

Greece’s state development fund said that Snam, the Italian gas distribution company, will buy a 17% stake in DESFA, a deal that would allow SOCAR to own 49% of the Greek distributor.

“We expect completion of the process of the sale of a stake in DESFA to Azerbaijan’s SOCAR. 17% out of the SOCAR package will be acquired by Snam,” Stergios Pitsiorlas, head of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) told Greek media.

Snam did not comment.

Media also said Rahman Mustafayev, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Greece, said Snam will partner with SOCAR. In March, Belgium’s Fluxys pulled out of a deal to partner with SOCAR to buy a 66% stake in DESFA.

It’s been a long-running affair. In 2013, SOCAR won a tender to buy 66% of DESFA for €400m ($450m), but the deal was frozen by the European Commission, which said that, according to a 2009 regulation, SOCAR could only buy a 49% stake.

DESFA is important to Azerbaijan because Greece will play a major role hosting part of a pipeline network that will pump gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe. The EU considers this an important new gas project

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)