Tag Archives: business

Four members, including Turkmenistan agree on TAPI investment

APRIL 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – State-owned Turkmengaz, Interstate Gas Systems of Pakistan, Afghan Gas Enterprise and India’s GAIL agreed to invest $200m in engineering studies for the TAPI gas pipeline project. The four members of the consortium forecast that TAPI will cost around $10b. Construction works started last December. Once built, TAPI will pump gas from Turkmenistan’s Galkynysh gas field to India.

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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Mitsubishi sends turbines to Turkmen power plant

APRIL 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) will supply gas turbines and generators to the 400MW Zerger gas-fired power plant in Turkmenistan. Under a $300m contract signed last year, Japan’s Sumitomo is building the plant in the Lebap region of Turkmenistan, 600km north-east of Ashgabat.

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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Russia’s Polymetal buys more Kazakh gold

ALMATY, APRIL 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian miner Polymetal continued its shopping spree in Kazakhstan buying gold miner Orion Metals, a company owned by Glencore’s subsidiary Kazzinc, for an initial $100m.

Orion Metals owns the Komarovskoye Gold Deposit, which lies 150km south of Polymetal’s Varvarinskoye field in north-east Kazakhstan.

“Komarovskoye has long been in our sights as a natural close fit for our Varvara hub,” Vitaly Nesis, CEO of Polymetal, said in a statement.

“We are very excited about the transaction which is expected to strengthen production profile, lower costs, and provide substantial incremental cash flows at Varvara in the near term.”

Varvara is a reference to Polymetal’s Varvarinskoye field.

Polymetal said Komoarovskoye, the gold field that Orion Metals owns, holds 43.5 tonnes of gold.

The deal with Kazzinc could reach $180m through the payment of royalties, if gold prices rise significantly.

In the past six months, Polymetal acquired companies and fields connected or close to its operations in both Kazakhstan and Armenia, in an effort to build production hubs.

Last November, Polymetal upgraded the size of its gold reserves at the Kyzyl project by 8% to 29.2m tonnes.

In 2015, it had bought the Kyzyl project for $620m from Sumeru, a private group owned by Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Kazakh oil company finalises agreement with Vitol

APRIL 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil company, Kazmunaigas, said it finalised an agreement it signed in December with Switzerland-based oil trader Vitol. The deal will allow Vitol to buy oil from Kazmunaigas for an advance payment of up to $3b. The press service of Samruk Kazyna, the sovereign wealth fund that owns Kazmunaigas, said the deal will last for four years.

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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Inter RAO considers selling its Georgian unit

TBILISI, APRIL 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian state-owned power company Inter RAO wants to sell a portion of its electricity generation assets in Georgia, a move that would confirm its retreat from the South Caucasus.

Sources told RIA Novosti that Inter RAO is looking for a buyer for its subsidiary Mtkvari Energy, which operates the 600 MW Mtkvari thermal power plant.

The Mtkvari plant — located near Gardabani, 40km south-east of Tbilisi — is the largest gas-fired thermal power station in Georgia. Inter RAO has been hit hard by an economic malaise in Russia and is looking to raise cash by selling non-core assets.

“At the moment, we cannot confirm that such a deal has taken place,” the company’s press service told media.

Last October, Inter RAO sold Electricity Networks of Armenia JSC, the grid operator in Armenia, to Tashir Group, a Russian real estate company.

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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Gazprom cuts gas price for Kyrgyztan

APRIL 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian gas company Gazprom cut the price of gas it sells to Kyrgyzstan by 9% to $150 per 1,000 cubic metres. Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev had been lobbying for this for some time, saying that a fall in global prices should mean a price reduction for consumers in Krygyzstan. Gazprom bought the Kyrgyz gas distributor in 2014 for a symbolic $1, promising to clear its debt and invest in infrastructure.

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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Oil export ban is illogical, says ex-Kyrgyz official

APRIL 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – For the past six years, there has been an informal ban on petroleum exports from Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan, former president of Kyrgyzstan’s Oil Traders Association, Zhumakadyr Akeneyev, said at a conference in Bishkek. According to him this practice is illogical within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union and it has caused a rise in illegal trading. Kyrgyzstan imports almost all its petroleum products from Russia.

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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Kazakh businessman to chair KazKom

APRIL 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kenes Rakishev, a businessman favoured by the Kazakh political elite to front companies they are linked with, was nominated to become chairman of Kazkommerts- bank. Mr Rakishev, 36, has steadily increased his stake in Kaz- kommertsbank over the past couple of years. He led the merger between Kazkommertsbank and BTA Bank which was riddled with debt. Analysts said that the merger of Kaz- kommertsbank with BTA Bank was driven as much by politics as it was by business motives.

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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Kazakhstan’s KMG EP ditches dividend payout for the first time

ALMATY, MARCH 31 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — KMG EP, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state-owned Kazmunaigas, said it will not pay dividends this year for the first time in a decade, reflecting the impact of low oil prices on the company.

KMG EP had paid dividends each year since its IPO on the London Stock Exchange in 2006.

“The board of directors has recommended not to pay dividends on ordinary shares,” the company said in a statement.

“The decision not to pay dividends is caused by a sharp decline in oil prices since the end of 2014, as a result of which the company’s cash flow and operating profit turned negative.”

The board decided to override an earlier recommendation from the company’s independent directors to pay out dividends this year.

KMG EP’s revenues collapsed by 37% in 2015. Oil prices have fallen from around $120/barrel in June 2014 to around $40/barrel now. Earlier this year oil cost less than $30/barrel.

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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Petronas to start drilling in Turkmen Caspian Sea

MARCH 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Petronas Carigali, a subsidiary of Malaysia’s largest energy company, said it is ready to start drilling at the Garagol Deniz West field in the Turkmen section of the Caspian Sea. The company is also about to complete a pipeline connection from the field to the onshore processing facility. Petronas is an active player in Turkmenistan’s gas sector.

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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)