Tag Archives: business

Georgia and Russia still talk gas

JAN. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gazprom and the Georgian government are still in talks over supplying more gas to Georgia, media reported quoting energy minister Kakha Kaladze. Georgia wants to increase gas supplies from Russia, a sensitive issue as the two countries had been enemies until recently. Georgia has risked irritating its neighbour and main gas supplier Azerbaijan by holding negotiations to buy more gas from Russia and Iran.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Kazakh city airport gets new boss

JAN. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Anuar Saidenov, former Kazakh Central Bank chief and ex-board member at BTA Bank and Bank RBK, was appointed chairman of the company managing Almaty airport. Since 2011, Netherlands based Venus Airport Investments has owned Almaty International Airport.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Markets: Tethys spotlight

JAN. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Guernsey-based oil and gas company Tethys Petroleum continues to travel along the bumpy roads of Central Asia. After a lengthy tug-of-war with Nostrum Petroleum over a takeover offer, it finally agreed with a $35m deal with Olisol, an oil investment group in Kazakhstan.

The funds, however, have not yet reached Tethys and at the end of December, the company said it “does not have sufficient funding to meet its requirements beyond next few months.”

In its operation at Tajikistan’s Bokhtar field, Tethys has lost the confidence of Total and CNPC, its partners in the project, after failing to pay its share for two consecutive cash calls.

What Tethys now doesn’t need is a fight with the Tajik government over the Bokhtar licence. The Tajik side says it’s been seven years since the beginning of the exploration and it is now entitled by law to strip 25% of the licensed area from the consortium.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Georgian GT Group to import wine- making kit

JAN. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — GT Group, a Georgian automotive holding company, launched a new company, GT Enology, to import wine-making equipment, local media reported. The company will buy machinery in France and Italy to service several wine-making companies in Georgia. GT Group is a major importer of lubricants and specialised vehicles in the country and is ranked as one of the largest taxpayers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Austria’s ILF signs deal to update Tajik HPP

DUSHANBE, JAN. 10 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Austrian company ILF Consulting Engineers signed a contract with Tajik state-owned utilities company Barqi Tojik to provide consulting services to modernise the Kayrakkum hydropower project, a key part of Tajikistan’s plans to become a regional exporter of electricity.

The Soviet-era facilities at the Kayrakkum plant have now reached the end of their lifecycle and the total cost of the modernisation of the plant is estimated at $169m. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will finance around $50m.

Barqi Tojik also intends to increase capacity of the hydropower plant, from 126MW to 174MW, giving an annual total output of 900 GWh.

Tajikistan, which produces around 98% of its electricity from hydropower sources, is trying to improve its power capacity.

It is part of the CASA-1000 project, an ambitious export project to send electricity to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The project is due for completion in 2019 and to fulfil its role of supplier, Tajikistan needs to speed up its modernisation projects. Kyrgyzstan is also involved in the CASA-100 project. Last month, Kyrgyzstan’s biggest hydropower station, Toktogul, broke down.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Azerbaijan’s President puts on a brave face

JAN. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Apparently putting a brave face on an increasingly poor economic outlook, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev said at a government meeting that the country’s GDP had actually grown last year by one percentage point. He also said that Azerbaijan needed to reduce its dependency on oil, something that most analysts have been urging for some time.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Russia drops Kyrgyz projects

DEC. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said a recession in Russia had hit the Kremlin’s finances so hard that it had pulled out of financing two hydropower projects in Kyrgyzstan. Russia’s economic demise presents an opportunity for China or others to fund infrastructure projects in Central Asia in return for influence. The two projects had been expected to cost $3.2b.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Kazakhstan scraps nuclear plans

DEC. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh government has scrapped plans to build a new nuclear power station, despite years of speculation over its location, size and financing, media reported quoting energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik. Mr Shkolnik said the country was producing enough power from other sources, although the government’s shrinking budget probably played a role in the decision.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Tajik aluminium company receives gold licence

DEC. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — TALCO, the Tajik state-owned aluminium company, received the rights to develop a cluster of gold and precious metals deposits in the area near Ayni, north-west Tajikistan. The Tajik government granted TALCO the rights to the deposits of Konchoch and Skalnoye for 25 years. TALCO will also build a processing facility in the area.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

China gas payments fall for Turkmenistan

DEC. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – China pays considerably less for the gas it bought from Turkmenistan between Jan. and Nov. 2015, compared to the same period in 2014, Chinese media reporting quoting official stats. China increased supplies from Turkmenistan by 13.8% during this period but still only paid $22.3b, 15% less than the total bill during the same period in 2014. Turkmenistan is largely reliant on China for its revenues although it is developing a gas route to India.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)