Tag Archives: business

BP says it is confident Azerbaijan’s ACG oil output will be strong

NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP said it expects to maintain last year’s production levels at Azeri Chirag-Guneshli (ACG), the largest oil field complex in Azerbaijan, despite analysts’ predictions that output would fall.

BP, which owns a 35.8% stake in ACG, has been under pressure to ensure that Azerbaijan’s most important oil project doesn’t reduce its output any further.

“We expect that the production on the results of 2015 at the block will not be lower than last year. Current production figures are ahead of the forecasted ones,” Gordon Birrell, BP regional director, told reporters .

Analysts had predicted a drop of 3% in Azerbaijan’s country-wide oil output in 2015 compared to 2014.

In H1 2015, production at ACG declined by 2.3% to 641,000 barrels/day compared to the same period in 2014.

This means that the third quarter report, due in the next few weeks, will have to show an increase in production to cancel out the Q1 drop.

Maintenance work halted operations at West Azeri in May and at Chirag in September. BP said it would carry out further work at Chirag on Nov. 10 for 25 days.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Uzbekistan looks to European companies for rail upgrade

NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan wants to upgrade its railway system and it has turned to European companies for the technology and the know-how.

Temir Yollari, Uzbekistan’s state-owned railway company, signed a €38m ($41m) deal with Spanish train manufacturer Talgo to buy two high-speed electric trains.

The new AVE 250 trains will be delivered in 2017. Temir Yollari is already using two Talgo trains, purchased in 2009, for its Tashkent-Samarkand route, opened in 2011.

The Uzbek government is spending around $400m to complete the rail link by 2016 — a potential windfall for European and other western companies looking for deals in the region.

Once completed, the railway line will half the travel time from Tashkent to Bukhara to around 3-1/2 hours.

In another deal struck this week, Temir Yollari signed a memorandum with French company Alstom to establish a production line for asynchronous traction motors, an advanced electric train engine, which Uzbekistan intends to use on new locomotives.

The asynchronous traction technology has not yet been introduced in the former Soviet Union.

“We appreciate the opportunity to work in Uzbekistan’s attractive investment environment and see this project as mutually beneficial for the parties [and] as the first step in the

development of Alstom’s long partnership with the country,” said Martin Vaujour, VP for Alstom CIS.

On paper, Uzbekistan is improving its legislation. The latest World Bank “Doing Business” ranking praised Uzbekistan for its reforms in the past two years. But it is still regarded as a difficult place. Corruption, bureaucracy and asset grabs by the state have all scarred investors.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Telenor suspends execs involved in Uzbek bribe

NOV. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Norwegian telecoms company Telenor said it had suspended four executives, including COO Richard Olva Aa, while an investigation into alleged bribe paying by VimpelCom in Uzbekistan continues. Telenor owns 33% of VimpelCom.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Armania increases electricity exports

NOV. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia wants to increase exports of electricity, natural resources minister, Levon Shahverdyan, said, more evidence that it wants to become a region energy exporter. Iran and Georgia are both dealing with power shortages.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Henkel constructs first factory in Georgia

NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — German industrial company Henkel started construction work at its first factory in Georgia. The new €6m ($6.5m) plant will open in 2016 and produce adhesive materials, one of Henkel’s core businesses. In the medium-term, Henkel plans to export its production to Armenia and Azerbaijan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Turkmenistan plans TAPI start

NOV. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan will host the official groundbreaking ceremony for the TAPI pipeline, which will pump gas from fields in the east of the country to consumers in India, via Afghanistan and Pakistan, on Dec. 13. This is important because TAPI has been spoken of for decades.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

GM Uzbekistan sales fall

NOV. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sales of cars by US-Uzbek joint venture GM Uzbekistan to Russia fell by almost 50% in the first 10 months of 2015, to just over 17,000, local media reported. GM Uzbekistan’s share in the Russian market, its most important market, has also fallen to 1.3% from 1.7% in 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Kazakh CBank approves Kaspi Bank ownership

NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh Central Bank approved a request to modify the shareholder composition of Kaspi Bank. President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s nephew Kairat Satybaldy and Mikhail Lomtadze, chairman of Kaspi Bank, transferred their shares and joined the holding company JSC Kaspi, headed by Kaspi Bank director Vyacheslav Kim. Kaspi Bank is the 6th largest bank in Kazakhstan by assets.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Samsung to build a plant in Uzbekistan

NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — South Korean Samsung Engineering signed an agreement with Uzbekneftegaz to build a petrochemical plant in Uzbekistan. Samsung said the new aromatics plant is still at its conceptual design phase and did not say when it would be built. Uzbekneftegaz, Uzbekistan’s state-owned oil and gas company, has already collaborated with Samsung on a $700m polymer plan.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Georgia bottled water company builds new factory

NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Healthy Water, the Georgian-Swiss company that produces the Nabeghavi brand of mineral water, will build a new factory in the western Guria region to expand its product line and increase its share of Georgia’s valuable bottled water market.

The new €30m ($32m) plant will open in 2016 near Batumi in western Georgia and add six bottling lines to the company’s production chain.

Healthy Water also plans to start producing lemonade, fruit juices and iced-tea. Funding for the new factory comes from a number of backers, including the EBRD.

As well as producing the upmarket Nabeghlavi brand, with its iconic green glass bottles and branding, Healthy Water also produces bottled water under the Bakhmaro brand. In 2014, it was the second-largest bottled water company in Georgia behind Borjomi, the most famous Georgian bottled water company.

Borjomi, with its slightly salty taste, dominates the Georgian bottled water market with 41% of the market.

Healthy Water has a 36% market share, split between its brands.

Healthy Water’s real aimmaybe the lucrative export market. It already exports its Nabeghlavi and Bakhmaro brands to North America, eight European Union countries, China, Russia and Turkey.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)