NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip that also took in neighbouring Uzbekistan, Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif visited Dushanbe for a meeting with Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon that would have focused on the CASA-1000 energy project. CASA-1000 aims to turn Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan into power exporters, sending electricity to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish mobile operator TeliaSonera said that the authorities in Tajikistan had ordered it to block access to a series of social media sites, including Facebook, because of alleged security threats.
In an unusually candid note, TeliaSonera, which operates in Tajikistan under the Tcell brand, said it had complied with the order, given on Nov. 2, although it did cast some doubt on the motives behind it.
“Government’s requests or demands often serve legitimate purposes such as the protection of certain human rights, but they may also be problematic in that they could conflict with other human rights,” it said in a statement on its website. “TeliaSonera’s commitment is to respect freedom of expression in telecommunications.”
The authorities in Tajikistan often ban access to social media because they say radical Islamists have infiltrated it. Human rights groups, though, have accused the government of cracking down on free speech.
As well as blocking Facebook, the authorities also blocked the Russian websites odnoklassniki.ru and vk.ru.
TeliaSonera, which is looking to sell its businesses in Central Asia and the South Caucasus after a corruption scandal in Uzbekistan, said it doesn’t comment on domestic politics.
“However, TeliaSonera does engage in dialogue regarding requests from authorities that affect our business and customers of companies in which we have ownership interests,” it said.
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — On the stock markets, KAZ Minerals, formerly called Kazakhmys, was one of the biggest movers.
Its share price rose from 80p to 92p — a two-week high, apparently off the back of news that it will restructure some of its costs.
On the Canada stock market, shares in Centerra Gold recovered from a six-month low of 6.95 Canadian dollars after its core asset, the Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan announced better-than-expected results.
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are having to brace themselves for a tough 2016. Oil prices are expected to stay low and output is likely to drop too.
Oil exports from Azerbaijan were down by 0.4% in Jan.-Oct. 2015 compared to last year, due to a decline in oil production, according to a source quoted by Reuters, a continuation of steady trend at its major oil field ACG.
BP is under pressure to stem the drop, and has said that it is on target to achieve this. Now an estimate from the US-based Energy
Information Administration appears to back this up. It said Azerbaijan is likely to maintain this year’s average of 870,000 barrels/day, or even more, in the first half of 2016.
But OPEC, a club of oil exporting countries that does not include Azerbaijan, disagrees.
It predicted oil output of 820,000 barrels/day for 2016, a 6% drop compared to 2015.
“Lower prices are likely to accelerate declines in Azerbaijan’s production in 2016 compared to 2015,” OPEC said in a report.
And Kazakhstan is also sending worrying signals.
Yerbolat Dossayev, minister of economy, said the government cut Kazakhstan’s oil output projection for 2015 by 1.5m tonnes to 79m tonnes, a 2.3% fall. OPEC agreed.
“With no new project startups lined up for next year, declining rates are likely to step up in 2016,” it said in its monthly report.
Analysts expect Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, which cannot influence oil prices, to produce and export at maximum capacity, while cutting down on investment. Earning hard currency from exports is top of the agenda for Central Asia and South Caucasus countries.
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan will expand its giant Galkynysh gas field by around 50% over the next few years, media reported quoting Ashirguly Begliyev, head of Turkmengas, giving gas projects to India and the EU a major boost.
Galkynysh forms the core of Turkmenistan’s gas production. Its main client is China although it wants to diversify its client base. The EU has been negotiating with Turkmenistan to try and organise for gas supplies to be sent west across the Caspian Sea, through the South Caucasus, Turkey and onto Europe.
India, likewise, has been working on a project that could see gas pumped from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan and finally to Indian consumers.
First, though, Turkmenistan needs to boost output at Galkynysh. Almost all of its current 60bcm of gas goes to China. A proportion of the next phase of Galkynysh’s development will also travel to China, but spare capacity is being built in.
“We are in talks with a consortium of Japanese companies and have also received proposals from Korean firms and from Petrofac company,” Reuters quoted Mr Begliyev as saying on which companies may be involved with the third phase development of Galkynysh.
Importantly, too, Galkynysh is vital for Turkmenistan’s own self image. It sees itself as an increasingly important regional energy player and has been looking to pull in more clients.
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company said it had opened a subsidiary company, called Caspian Marine Service, in Russia’s Astrakhan to take advantage of the area’s economic free zone. Trade around the Caspian Sea has generally increased over the past few years. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have all increased their ports’ capacities.
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzvinprom, an Uzbek state holding company, said that two investors from Germany and Bulgaria were interested in buying stakes in Uzbek wine producers. The two investors, which Uzbek media named as Bever and Vinogradez Vine House, have signed a memorandum of understanding. There were no more details on the deal.
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 13/16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Russian miner Polymetal upgraded gold reserve estimates at its Kyzyl mine in eastern Kazakhstan and said it had bought a 75% stake in Armenian diamond mine Lichkvaz that it didn’t already own.
Both the reserve upgrade at Kyzyl and the buyout of Lichkvaz will give the mining industries in Armenia and Kazakhstan a major boost.
At the Bakyrchik mine at its Kyzyl project, Polymetal said that a feasibility study had upgraded the size of gold reserves there by 8% to 29.2m tonnes.
Polymetal will run further exploration works until the end of 2016 and expects to reach full output capacity at the mine in 2019. Polymetal said it is ready to invest $328m for the next phase of the project.
Polymetal CEO Vitaly Nesis said in a statement: “With significantly reduced capital expenditure, compelling high-grade reserves and straight- forward execution plan, Kyzyl is set to become a significant free cash flow contributor for Polymetal.”
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev flew to Tbilisi for a meeting with Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili. Officially, the clearly good-natured meeting only yielded promises of a deeper relationship but energy links were likely to have been discussed. Georgia is an important transit country for Azerbaijani gas en route to Turkey and Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkish construction company Dal Engineering signed a memorandum to start building a new $225m cement plant in Uzbekistan. Dal Engineering will partner with state- owned Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine to build a 1.5m tonnes/year plant in the southern region of Surkhandariya by 2017. Slow foreign investment has delayed the project. Once built, the new plant will increase cement production capacity in Uzbekistan by 20%.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
