Tag Archives: business

Turkmen president joins leaders at gas summit in Tehran

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov flew to Tehran for the third Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), sometimes dubbed the OPEC of gas, taking the normally reclusive state into the mainstream.

Generally unwilling to participate in international organisations, Turkmenistan accepted an invitation from GECF to attended its forum as a guest. Mr Berdymukhamedov’s acceptance of the invitation showed that he wants to play a deeper role in shaping global energy prices and policy.

A disparate group of 12 major gas exporting countries, the GECF meets biannually to try to set the agenda for world gas prices. In contrast to OPEC, a group of oil exporting countries, it has little power to influence price or sway production plans.

Gas prices are generally indexed to oil prices.

At the Forum, Mr Berdymukhamedov also held a side meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani. Russian president Vladimir Putin also attended the forum.

According to Simon Pirani, senior researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Turkmenistan’s activity at the Forum had a diplomatic, rather than commercial tone. He said Turkmenistan remain fixed to its China-centric export strategy.

“Exports to Russia will remain low, which will preserve relations with Russia, but there is not much that Turkmenistan can do in the short term to diversify its exports, especially due to its traditional policy of selling gas at the border,” Mr Pirani told the Bulletin.

GECF is a high profile, but still relatively impotent group. It aspires to hold the influence that OPEC wields but is more of a talking shop.

Members of GECF are Iran, Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. Azerbaijan, Iraq, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman and Peru have observer status.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Azerbaijani energy company releases gas figures

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company SOCAR said it produced 5.76b cubic metres of gas in the first 10 months of the year, down 5.5% compared to last year. Oil and gas exports are vital to the Azerbaijani economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Azerbaijan’s Azerfon expands coverage

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Nar Mobile brand of Azerbaijan’s telecoms company Azerfon said it has expanded 3G and 4G coverage in the country. Kent McNeley, Azerfon’s CEO, said the company has doubled its total network capacity in the past two years. Nar Mobile was awarded a licence to operate LTE networks earlier in February.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kazakhstan’s KMG invests in Romania

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — KMG International, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state-owned energy company Kazmunaigas, will invest $6m in the modernisation of the Petromidia Navodari refinery in Romania. KMG International owns Rompetrol. The Petromidia refinery has a capacity of 5m tonnes/year and is located just north of Constanta, Romania’s main Black Sea port. The upgrade will be completed by 2018.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Turkcell moves to buy mobile companies from TeliaSonera in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan

NOV. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkcell, Turkey’s biggest mobile service provider, is planning on buying TeliaSonera’s assets in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, Bloomberg News reported by quoting a source close to the company.

The source said that Turkcell had appointed HSBC and Citigroup to advise it on its potential bid to buy the stake in Fintur from TeliaSonera that it doesn’t already own.

Turkcell owns 41.45% of Rotterdam-based Fintur; TeliaSonera owns the rest. Fintur runs brands in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Moldova with 18m users.

Turkcell CEO, Kaan Terzioglu, appeared to confirm the company’s intention to buy TeliaSonera’s stake in Fintur. Answering journalists’ questions in Istanbul on when a deal would be finished, he said: “in 2016 if all the negotiations go well.”

The deal is important because it moves TeliaSonera towards its stated aim of selling its companies in Central Asia and the South Caucasus. It also owns businesses in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan which it wants to find a buyer for.

Earlier this year, it said that it wanted to sell up after investigations began into a corruption scandal at its Uzbek company. It is alleged to have paid Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov, millions of dollars in bribes to gain access to the Uzbek mobile market in 2007/8.

Telenor, its Norwegian rival, is also investigating alleged corruption at its Uzbek subsidiary. It owns a 33% stake in Russia-based Vimpelcom which owns a company in Uzbekistan that also, allegedly paid a bribe to enter the market.

Turkcell is Turkey’s main mobile operator. Its shareholder structure has been argued over since 2011. It has shares listed on the New York and Istanbul stock exchanges but its institutional shareholders include Turkey’s Cukurova Holding, Russia’s AlfaGroup and TeliaSonera.

ENDS