FEB. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Alexander Medvedev, vice-chairman of Gazprom, Russia’s gas monopoly, said the company would cut gas it buys from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Mr Medvedev did not specify why Gazprom had cut its orders from Turkmenistan by 60% and from Uzbekistan by 75% but it may be linked to Russia’s economic downturn.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
>>Russia pledges new gas infrastructure system>>
JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Bishkek, Alexei Miller, the CEO of Gazprom, said the Russian state-owned gas company would invest $500m into Kyrgyzstan’s gas network system over the next three years.
This is a massive investment by Russia into what is essentially its backyard, especially during these times of economic turbulence. Gas has become a form of diplomacy and control for the Kremlin and it wants to bring Kyrgyzstan closer into its hegemony.
“This is 1.7 times larger than originally planned,” media quoted Mr Miller as saying of the proposed investment plan. “All the planned works will be financed in full.”
Gazprom bought Kyrgyzstan’s gas monopoly for a symbolic $1 in 2013. This year the Kremlin has already earned credit for negotiating a deal between the Uzbek and the Kyrgyz authorities to supply gas to the south of Kyrgyzstan.
And influence over Bishkek is important for Russia. Over the past decade Kyrgyzstan has swung between supporting the West to looking towards the Kremlin. Now that the US military base outside Bishkek has been dismantled (it went last year) the Kremlin has upped its drive to pull Bishkek closer towards it.
Later this year, Kyrgyzstan plans to join the Kremlin-controlled Eurasian Economic Union. It has sold its gas system to Gazprom and has introduced various legislation that apes Russian laws and, many analysts say, curtails personal freedoms.
Russian dominance over Kyrgyzstan is growing.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
MO’YNOQ/Uzbekistan, FEB. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sagynbai Murzayev is a strong and gentle Soviet-made man in his 70s. He used to be a fisherman in windswept Mo’ynoq, a town in Karakalpakstan which lies on the remote western fringe of Uzbekistan. Now he works several jobs and witnesses the Chinese influx.
Mo’ynoq once lay on the shores of the Aral Sea. This sea, though, shrunk rapidly because a Soviet irrigation system siphoned off its tributaries’ waters to feed giant cotton fields.
Left behind is a lunar desert of white dunes that locals call Aralkum (Aral’s Sands).
Murzayev works at the local museum of natural history and has witnessed the retreat from the beginning. His father was also a fisherman, his mother worked in a fishery. He now gathers most of his earnings by driving foreign guests to the sea shores. Most of the visitors are Chinese.
Since 2006 an energy consortium led by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has been exploring oil and gas deposits below the former seabed.
Although national Uzbek publications boast about Karakalpakstan’s growth as an energy-rich region, operations in the Ustyurt Plateau seem, to Murzayev at least, to proceed at a slow pace. The few Chinese workers camping on the shoreline are mainly after a rather different and rather unusual resource for Central Asia — shrimps.
Unexcited, Murzayev looked at a Chinese trawler coming ashore.
“The indiscriminate pillage of natural resources has already been proved to be detrimental for us,” he said. “We need to bring the sea back to life and not to scavenge its dead body.”
In the distance, the town’s crumbling homes are a symbol of the small economic advantages that this uncertain oil and gas bonanza can bring to the region. And all the while the fading memories of the local fisherman who used to work on the lake grow thinner and thinner.
>>By Gianluca Pardelli
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
FEB. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gazprom Armenia was the largest taxpayer in Armenia in 2014, media reported, highlighting just how important Russia is to the Armenian economy. Gazprom Armenia owns Armenia’s gas pipeline system. In 2014 it paid taxes of nearly 43b dram ($90m). This was almost double the second highest taxpayer.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
MARCH 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov flew to Anakara for talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on cooperation in the energy sector. Media reported that Mr Erdogan wants to set up a grouping with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. This is likely to revolve around the South Caucasus energy corridor.
-ENDS-
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)
JAN. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Tajikistan want to build six new cement-making plants, media reported quoting government officials. Currently Tajikistan is an importer of cement. It wants to become a net exporter of cement. Chinese investment has fueled a building boom in Tajikistan over the past couple of years.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
JAN. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The price of wheat in Kyrgyzstan has reached a record high because of a poor crop last year, high energy prices and the falling value of the Kyrgyz som, media quoted media reported. Kyrgyz households are sensitive to food price fluctuations as they spend around 60% of their income on food.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015
JAN. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Japanese industrial conglomerate Toshiba is negotiating with Kazakhstan to build a new nuclear reactor, media reported. Kazakhstan has been looking to build a new nuclear power station for years. It has earmarked a position for the power station but not yet started work.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
JAN. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP said it had cut 255 jobs from its operations in Azerbaijan as a result of the sharp drop in oil prices over the past six months. The 255 jobs represents 8% of its total workforce in Azerbaijan. The redundancies highlighted the impact of the oil price drop on the country.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
JAN. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Building work in Armenia fell by 4.3% last year compared to 2013, data released by the national statistics agency showed. The construction sector is an important part of the Armenian economy and its decline highlights the problems faced by business as it deals with the fallout from Russia’s economic downturn.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
