Tag Archives: business

Top TALCO manager sacked

FEB. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s president Emomali Rakhmon sacked the managing-director at TALCO, the company that runs its aluminium smelter, media reported. No official reason was given for sacking Sadriddin Sharipov from TALCO which generates around 70% of Tajikistan’s foreign earnings.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)

Tengiz output to rise

FEB. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tengizchevroil, a Kazakh joint-venture with Chevron, is expected to boost oil output by 42% to 38m tonnes by 2021, Kazakh energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik said. This is important news for Kazakhstan as Tengizchevroil is its biggest single oil producer.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)

Turkmenistan criticises Russia

>>Criticism comes after Russia cuts Turkmen gas imports>>

FEB. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan has criticised Russia as an unreliable gas partner, hinting that it was moving away from its traditional energy alliance with Moscow and was instead looking for new clients and markets.

Ties between Turkmenistan and Russia have been increasingly strained and, perhaps, the Kremlin’s shadow boxing with the West in eastern Ukraine persuaded it to issue the harshly worded statement and speed up its search for new clients.

“Gazprom and its affiliates periodically violate agreements at interstate, intergovernmental and interdepartmental level, leading to the view that unfortunately the major energy company is an unstable partner,” the AFP news agency reported quoting an article on the website of Turkmenistan’s oil and gas ministry.

Earlier this year, Gazprom said that it was cutting imports of gas from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan by up to two-thirds.

Like other countries in the region, Turkmenistan has been trying to deal with the fallout from the decline in the value of the rouble and also the fall in energy prices. President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has ordered his energy executives to search for more clients.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)

Azerbaijan oil output rises

FEB. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil output in Azerbaijan rose for the first time in a year, Reuters quoted an Azerbaijani official as saying. The official, who declined to be named, said the increase was due to a rise in production at the ACG fields operated by BP.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)

Made in Kazakhstan label

FEB. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government has launched a new initiative to promote domestic industries which will include a clothing label marked “Made in Kazakhstan”, officials said. Earlier President Nursultan Nazarbayev had said more people should buy Kazakh goods.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)

Russia slow on Kyrgyz projects

FEB. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s energy minister, Kubanychbek Turdubayev, has accused Russia of working too slowly on upgrades to hydropower projects, eurasianet.org reported. Upgrades to the Kambar-Ata 1 dam and the Upper-Naryn Cascade were part of a 2012 deal that saw Moscow secure an extension to leases on military bases in Kyrgyzstan.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)

Auchan to open in Tajikistan

FEB. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a major boost for the retail market in Tajikistan, Auchan, the French supermarket brand, has agreed to open up its first franchise in Dushanbe later this year.

Media said that Auchan had signed a deal with French distributor Schiever to manage the stores.

It did not report where exactly the store would open but it did say that it would stock mainly Russian produce and open in 2015.

Schiever already runs Auchan’s stores in Poland.

The news is, obviously, good for Tajikistan which has been short on positive economic news lately. It’s also a departure from the norm.

Headlines from Tajikistan recently have focused on major Chinese expansion but little investment from European retailers.

It will also shake up the Tajik retail sector which has been dominated by small shops selling goods of variable quality. The Auchan store will, according to press reports, be roughly the size of a football pitch.

The Auchan store project is partly financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) which has expanded its portfolio of projects across the region. In 2014, the EBRD said, it invested 100m euro into Tajikistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)

World Bank supports Uzbek railway

FEB. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The World Bank agreed a $195m loan to Uzbekistan for a railway project that will speed up trade with China, media reported. The $1.6b project in the eastern Ferghana Valley will also bypass a Soviet-built section of railway that passes through Tajikistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)

Berdy wants more clients

FEB. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps feeling the pinch from falling energy prices, Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov wants Turkmenistan to increase the number of foreign clients it has for its gas, the official website turkmenistan.ru reported. Mr Berdmukhamedov has already increased Turkmenistan’s client case since taking over.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

SOCAR Cape wins $65m project

FEB. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — SOCAR Cape, a joint venture between Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company SOCAR and British oil fields services company Cape, have won contracts to work on the Shah Deniz field worth $65m, media reported. Shah Deniz is a one of Azerbaijan’s largest oil fields.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)