Tag Archives: business

Azerbaijan’s oil production in 2015 will fall

MARCH 11 2015 (The Bulletin) – Oil production in Azerbaijan is likely to drop by around 4% this year to 806,000 barrels per day, media reported quoting senior officials at state energy company SOCAR.

This is more bad news for Azerbaijan which is largely reliant on oil and gas sales for its revenues.

The fall in oil prices has already hit Azerbaijan which has cut government spending and devalued its manat currency.

The main problem for Azerbaijan’s oil production is that output at the BP-led Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli (ACG) is falling. ACG makes up the vast majority of Azerbaijan’s current oil output and only it could knock overall production so substantially.

BP has tried to stem the oil production decline but with limited success. Azerbaijan has put BP under increased pressure to find a solution, so for a senior SOCAR figure to brief the media so early in the year that ACG is likely to miss its targets is telling. Perhaps, Azerbaijan is trying to put BP under more pressure.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Mitsubishi wins large tender in Uzbekistan

MARCH 7 2015 (The Bulletin) – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a Japanese company, has won a tender to build a chemical complex in central Uzbekistan, media reported quoting the Uzbek government press service. Reports said that the complex, which will produce ammonia, will cost around $1b to build. Ammonia is used in fertiliser.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Georgia signs Microsoft deal

MARCH 5 2015 (The Bulletin) – After years of pirating software, Georgia’s government signed a deal with Microsoft to officially licence its operating system and other products, signalling its desire to promote its IT sector.

According to a 2013 study by the Business Software Alliance, a US-based industry lobby group, Georgia had the highest global software piracy rate. Around 90% of all the software installed in the country was unlicensed, including the government’s software.

Giga Paitchadze, IT expert and well known blogger, said this was a step towards professionalising Georgia’s image.

“Using licensed software on a state level will have a spill over effect on Georgian society, it will be a soft recommendation to respect other people’s work,” he said. “Just as our own intellectual property, patents, and products, need to be protected around the world as well.”

The license agreement is expected to have a positive effect on the Georgian IT sector. In the past few years, IT has been a major focus point of both the current and the previous government to be more competitive globally.

The government has estimated that the deal with Microsoft will cost around $8m to buy all state agencies with the latest versions of Microsoft’s operating systems.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

SOCAR plans Eurobond

MARCH 6 2015 (The Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR plans to issue a Eurobond by the end of March, the company’s CEO Rovnag Abdullayev said. Mr Abdullayev said SOCAR was launching the Eurobond because of the slide in oil prices over the past six months or so which have hit the company’s profits.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Kazakhstan speaks up against off-shoring

MARCH 6 2015 (The Bulletin) – At a Senate hearing in Astana, chairman of the ministry of finance’s revenue committee, Daulet Yergozhin, said the country was going to impose new measures against off-shoring cash.

This is important — if new legislation actually appears — as the issue of Kazakhstan’s wealthy getting their cash out of the country while poorer sections of the population suffer during an economic downturn could turn political.

A study published last month by Alexander Cooley and Jason Sharman, two academics, analysed the channels through which the Kazakh elite amassed “spectacular fortunes” in Western financial centres.

Mr Yergozhin wasn’t responding to these accusations. Instead he said Kazakhstan was working with Switzerland and Liechtenstein to reduce the flow of capital out of the country.

“Already this year, we are planning to put barriers against the movement of capital [to offshore locations] and we will start seeing the results of this policy early next year,” media quoted him as saying.

Kazakhstan has been looking was to bring capital back into the country. Last year it introduced an amnesty for people which repatriated cash. It has said that this amnesty has so far attracted $1b back into Kazakhstan.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

KAZ Minerals’ losses grow

FEB. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – KAZ Minerals, the London-listed Kazakh copper miner, recorded a net loss of £2.4b last year, mainly due to a $2.1b write-off from discontinued operations. KAZ Minerals, formerly called Kazakhmys, has close links with the Kazakh elite.

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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Georgia CBank wants loans restructured

FEB. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Central Bank wants commercial banks to present plans to restructure US dollar loans to help them cope with the drop in the value of the lari. An estimated 60% of banks’ loans are held in foreign currencies making them more expensive to service.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

China to build lead plant in Tajikistan

MARCH 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Underscoring China’s influence over Tajikistan’s economy, a Chinese company has agreed to build a $200m lead producing plant, media reported quoting a senior Tajik government official. China has increased its influence over Tajikistan over the past few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Azerbaijani manat devaluation hurts banks

FEB. 25/MARCH 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ratings agencies warned that the 30% devaluation of the Azerbaijani manat last month would hurt the capitalisation of the country’s banks. Fitch said that most of debt held by Azerbaijani banks was in foreign currencies, making it more expensive for them to service.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Azerbaijani airline orders Boeings

MARCH 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Baku-based freight carrier Silk Road West has ordered three Boeing 747-8 cargo planes for a reported $1.1b, Boeing said in a statement. The deal is a major one for Boeing and shows Silk Road West’s confidence.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)