DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A source at Azerbaijan’s statistic committee told Reuters that SOCAR’s low output for the first 11 months of 2015 had pushed down total oil and gas production in Azerbaijan. Azeri-Chirag- Guneshli, a BP-operated offshore oilfield, also contributed to a contraction in production of 0.5%.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least eight rig workers died when a storm smashed into an oil and gas platform in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea and triggered a gas explosion.
Another 23 people are still missing from Platform No. 10 of the shallow- water Guneshli field, operated by Azerbaijan’s state-owned SOCAR. Three others are also missing from another platform in the Oil Rocks field after being swept overboard.
Rescue workers said there was little chance of finding any survivors. This means that the final death toll will probably hit 34 — the worst dis- aster in the history of Caspian Sea oil and gas production and the deadliest offshore platform accident since 167 people died in the Piper Alpha acci- dent in the North Sea in 1988.
At a press conference in Baku on Wednesday a downcast Khalig Mamedov, SOCAR vice-president , said: “Despite all the efforts, regrettably, no-one has been found. This is the biggest tragedy in SOCAR’s history.”
Media reported that most of the oil workers who died on Platform No.10 were killed in a botched attempt to abandon the platform in one of the lifeboats. Two dozen workers were successfully rescued from the plat- form, though.
As of Thursday, the blaze on Platform No. 10 was still burning.
The accident stunned people in Azerbaijan. Football matches across the country held a minute’s silence. Along the seafront in Baku people silently laid down bunches of roses. Others sobbed, looking out to sea.
The gas explosion at Platform No. 10 cut production at all 28 wells, 24 oil wells and four gas wells, of the shallow-water Guneshli field. Daily output at Guneshli was around 6,500 barrels/day of oil and 400m cubic metres of natural gas per year, Reuters reported.
Importantly for Azerbaijan’s overall oil production, BP said that output at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field complex that it manages was untouched by the accident.
Azerbaijan has been struggling to maintain oil output this year. This accident will dent both its safety record and oil production levels.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
DEC. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dutch retailer Spar International opened its first store in Baku. The store carries the Spar branding but is operated by local company Araz. In a statement, Araz said it plans to open eight new Spar stores by the end of 2017 to add to the 23 stores it already operates. Spar is expanding its convenience store format across the world and is opening stores in Oman, Indonesia and Malawi.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
DEC. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — As the diplomatic row between Russia and Turkey intensifies, some analysts believe it could spill over into a gas war similar to the Russia- Ukraine crises of the past decade.
When Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu visited Baku last week, his statement on the acceleration of construction works for the TANAP pipeline rebounded all over the press.
Mr Davutoglu said he had reached an agreement with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to inaugurate the new gas pipeline from Azerbaijan to Turkey ahead of schedule. That is, before 2018.
Some, including myself, read this as a poke in the eye to Russia, which had imposed a food and travel embargo and suspended work on another pipeline, Turkish Stream, that would have connected Russia and Turkey via the Black Sea.
Turkey wanted to show Russia that it had options and where better to go to prove this than its erstwhile ally Azerbaijan – also a former Soviet state?
But there is also another important point that should not be overlooked. What gas would a TANAP pipeline completed early actually carry?
Supply for TANAP will come from the expanded Shah Deniz gas field (Shah Deniz-2) off the coast of Baku in the Caspian Sea.
But Shah Deniz-2 will only come online with its first gas in 2018. It simply can’t be brought forward.
So the question remains as to what gas Azerbaijan will use to fill the 16bn cubic metres it promised to its western customers if TANAP is built early.
In short, the acceleration of construction works at TANAP is meaningless before the gas is also ready to be shipped.
It is political hot air.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
DEC. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) -The Armenian-backed authorities in the disputed region of Nagorno- Karabakh accused Azerbaijani tanks of shelling its positions for the first time in nearly 20 years. Azerbaijan denied the accusation and said that the Armenian-backed rebels had been firing on their positions. Fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh has worsened over the past few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
DEC. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Azerbaijan arrested Jahangir Hajiyev, the former head of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) who was once feted as a future Central Bank chief, on charges of fraud and abuse of office.
His arrest follows the sacking of his brother-in-law, Eldar Mahmudov, in October as the national security minister and the sacking of Ali Abbasov as communications minister in November.
Mr Hajiyev, 54, had resigned from his position of chairman at IBA in March, officially because of poor health. He had been chairman of IBA for 14 years. State-controlled IBA is the largest bank in Azerbaijan and controls 60% of all loans in the country.
IBA also published its half-year results for 2015 on Dec. 5, highlighting a loss of 216m manat ($206m), due to the economic slowdown in the country, significantly worsened the bank’s loan portfolio.
Mr Hajiyev had been considered something of a high-flying financial executive and was tipped by many to succeed Elman Rustamov as head of the Azerbaijani Central Bank.
Instead, it appears as if Mr Hajiyev has become embroiled in a power- struggle within the notoriously secretive, and corrupt, Azerbaijani elite.
Azerbaijani media have started publishing stories which said Mr Mahmudov, the former security minister, had been covering for Mr Hajiyev who was pilfering cash.
Corruption in Azerbaijan is rife. In July, the Berlin-based lobby group Transparency International said: “Corruption in Azerbaijan is widely perceived to be endemic and deeply institutionalised – permeating all spheres of public life, with entrenched political patronage networks and widespread conflicts of interest closely connected to the political elite.”
With formal charges being filed, Mr Hajiyev will remain in jail for the next four months, pending trial.
In July, IBA appointed Elmar Mammadov as its new chairman. He had previously been head of Azer- Turk Bank.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
DEC. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev flew to China for talks with Chinese president Xi Jingping to discuss developing the South Caucasus as a transport corridor. Azerbaijan has been boosting its status as a gateway between the east and west.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
DEC. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan appeared to bow to international pressure and release a frail- looking Leyla Yunus, one of the country’s most high-profile human rights activists, from prison where she had been serving an 8-1⁄2 year sentence for fraud and tax evasion.
She will re-join her husband, Arif who was sent to prison at the same time but was released earlier on health grounds, in their Baku home.
The West has accused the authorities in Baku of cracking-down on dissents over the past few years.
Human rights activists welcomed the release of Leyla Yunus, although she is not allowed to leave Baku and her fraud and tax evasion conviction still stands.
They also said, though, that other so-called political prisoners needed to be released. This includes journalist Khadija Ismayilova who was sent to prison earlier this year.
Ismayilova was a relatively well- known RFE/RL journalist in Azerbaijan who had reported on top level corruption in Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil completed its retreat from the South Caucasus gas industry with its sale of a 20% stake in the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), part of a pipeline network that will pump gas from Azerbaijan to Europe.
Italian pipeline company Snam bought Statoil’s TAP stake for €208m ($227m), increasing Italy’s commitment in the Southern Gas Corridor, running from Azerbaijan, through Turkey and Greece, to Italy.
Over the past two years, Statoil has quit Azerbaijan,’s gas sector selling its 25% stake in the giant Shah Deniz field and its 15.5% stake in the South Caucasus Pipeline, which transports gas from Shah Deniz to Georgia and Turkey.
Statoil hailed its sale of its stake in TAP as generating value for share- holders but the final price of €208m is lower than the €400m that industry analysts had forecasted over the summer.
Statoil still owns an 8.56% stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field and a 8.71% share in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
NOV. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian hackers broke into the Azerbaijani Central Bank network and stole personal data from thousands of people, media reported. This is the second hacker attack on Azerbaijani state websites this year. In June, hackers stole thousands of people’s data from the Azerbaijani customs website.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
