Tag Archives: business

Statoil quits Azerbaijani fields

JULY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Statoil, the oil and gas company part owned by the Norwegian government, has decided to sell its 20% stake in the Trans- Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project that will pump gas from Azerbaijani fields in the Caspian to consumers in Europe.

Rovnag Abdullayev, the head of Azerbaijani oil and gas company SOCAR, announced the news on Azerbaijani TV.

“Statoil has decided to leave the TAP project completely, and there is a company which is ready to buy its stake,” ANS TV quoted him as saying.

“Several companies have expressed an interest in buying Statoil’s stake, and it would be better if several companies would buy it.”

Statoil declined to comment.

If confirmed, Statoil’s decision to quit TAP is probably more a reflection on how it is

re-adjusting its portfolio rather than on the project itself. Statoil has already said it wants to reduce its exposure to risk in its portfolio and has sold its stakes in the giant Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea as well as in the South Caucasus Pipeline.

Stakes in these projects were snapped up by SOCAR, BP and Malaysia’s Petronas and Statoil’s stake in TAP will attract bids from companies looking for a high-profile project.

TAP is an 870km pipeline project that should link up with the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline near the Turkey-Greece border which will then carry Azerbaijani gas onto central Europe.

The current TAP shareholders are BP (20%), SOCAR (20%), Statoil (20%), Belgium’s Fluxys (19%), Spain’s Enagas (16%) and Swiss company Axpo (5%).

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Harvey Nichols closes in Azerbaijan

JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – BAKU — Harvey Nichols, the upmarket, blingy British retailer favoured by the world’s globe trotting metropolitan elite has closed its store in Baku only four months after opening.

A spokesperson for Harvey Nichols declined to comment but she did confirm the news.

“Harvey Nichols has terminated its licence agreement with the operator of the Baku store. Consequently, the Baku store no longer operates under the Harvey Nichols brand,” retail-week.com quoted a spokeswoman as saying.

A Bulletin correspondent in Baku confirmed that the Harvey Nichols signage had been removed from its shop in an upmarket shopping mall.

The closure will embarrass the authorities in Azerbaijan who have taken pride in attracting some of the top luxury brands to Baku and turning it into a regional shopping Mecca.

And it also shines another spotlight on Azerbaijan human rights and corruption records which have been attracting criticism.

Harvey Nichols opened its Baku store in March 2015, its eighth overseas outlet and the first in the former Soviet Union. It operated in Baku through a franchise arrangement.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Armenia receives $300m loan

JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Almaty-based Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) will loan $300m to Armenia to weather tough economic conditions, media reported quoting Russia’s deputy economy minister Sergei Storchak. The ADB was set up by Russia and Kazakhstan. It supports members of the Eurasian Economic Union.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Armenia buys French telecoms company

JULY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – French telecoms company Orange is considering selling its Armenian subsidiary to Ucom, an Armenian fibre optic cable. Orange has been operating in Armenia since 2009 and has 650,000 subscribers.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Kazakhstan’s mobile operator faces fall in profits

JULY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Net profit at KCell, Kazakhstan’s largest mobile operator, dropped by 23.6% in Jan-June compared to the same period in 2014 because of aggressive price competition, the company said.

A few days later, on July 21, Kazakhstan’s state monopolies committee also ordered KCell, owned by Sweden and Finland based Telia-Sonera, to return around 1.5b tenge ($800m) to its customers for overcharging, more evidence that mobile charges in Kazakhstan are falling sharply.

KCell CEO Arti Ots said: “Further intensification of competition, with notably aggressive pricing, has impacted our results for the second quarter of 2015.”

KCell’s competitors Tele2, also based in Sweden, also blamed a price war in Kazakhstan for lower-than-hoped for profits. Mats Granryd, the company’s CEO, said that prices in Kazakhstan are falling sharply.

“Kazakhstan is turning into a real bloodbath when it comes to pricing,” he told Reuters in an interview.

Mobile companies operating in Kazakhstan are competing to lower prices, in an effort to grab market share.

And the conse- quences of these pricing policies are filtering through. In earnings reports, both KCell and Tele2 said they have not been profitable in Kazakhstan in 2015.

Specifically, Kcell said that its sales in H1 2015 were down by 6.6% on the same period in 2014. It also said that service revenue dropped by 12.3%.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Azerbaijan airline looks to cut fees

JULY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan Airlines will reduce the cost of is tickets in-line with a direct order from President Ilham Aliyev, local media quoted the company as saying in a press release. The statement showed just how much control Mr Aliyev has over Azerbaijan’s various state-linked companies.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Iran deal to boost steelmakers in Kazakhstan

JULY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Lifting of international sanctions against Iran will give Kazakhstan’s steelmaking industry, and the ArcelorMittal plant at Temirtau in particular, a boost, Asset Isekeshev, Kazakh minister for industrial development, said.

ArcelorMittal Temirtau, near Karaganda, is one of the most important factories in Kazakhstan outside the oil and gas sector but it has struggled recently because of a drop in demand for steel from Iran.

“The lifting of sanctions against Iran could be a big plus for ArcelorMittal. This is a big market for us and this would allow us to stabilise operations,” Mr Isekeshev said at a press conference.

According to officials from ArcelorMittal Temirtau, Iran makes up around a third of its export market. Over the past few years, ArcelorMittal has tried to cut costs at the plant. It has laid-off thousands of workers and imposed salary cuts.

A new railway transport route from Kazakhstan, across Turkmenistan into Iran should also help ArcelorMittal exports.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Tajikistan increases electricity exports

JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan increased its electricity exports by 9.4% in the first half of 2015, compared to the same period last year, according to the ministry of energy. Afghanistan receives the majority of Tajik electricity exports. Electricity exports are increasingly important to Tajikistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Azerbaijani oil exports to Russia re-start

JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – SOCAR, the Azerbaijani state- owned oil and gas company, resumed oil exports to Russia after a break of several weeks, Rovnag Abdullayev, the SOCAR chairman, was quoted by media as saying. No reason was given on why exports were resumed.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Iran suggests petrol imports for Kazakhstan

JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran could export refined oil products to Kazakhstan, Vahid Ahmadi, the Iranian deputy science minister, told media. This is important because Kazakhstan is looking for ways to boost its supply of oil-based products.

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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)