Tag Archives: business

BP wants contract extension on Azerbaijan’s ACG oil fields

APRIL 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bob Dudley, the BP CEO, said that he had signed a letter of intent with the other partners of Azerbaijan’s ACG to extend the contract to operate the country’s biggest oil producing site by 25 years to 2050.

He said a final contract still needed to be signed but that this was likely this year. ACG is critical to Azerbaijan’s economy although its production rate has been falling over the past few years, a drop blamed on aging infrastructure, frustrating Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev.

“I think it’ll happen this year,” media quoted Mr Dudley as saying of the ACG contract extension.

“The contract expires in 2024, but you don’t want activity to drop off in the end of the contract period.”

BP owns a 35.78% stake in ACG (Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli). The other shareholders are Chevron (11.28%), Inpex (10.96%), AzACG (11.65 per- cent), Statoil (8.55 percent), Exxon (8 percent), TPAO (6.75 percent), Itochu (4.3 percent) and ONGC (2.72 percent).

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Investors set up club in Armenia

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MARCH 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a major boost to Armenia’s business-friendly PM, Karen Karapetyan, 36 Armenian millionaires living in Russia said that they would chip into a new fund designed to kick-start business in Armenia. At a signing ceremony in Yerevan, Mr Karapetyan said that the Investors Club of Armenia would help to stimulate further economic growth. It will also have helped give Mr Karapetyan and his Republican Party a boost ahead of an election on April 2. The Investors Club has not yet named any target projects.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Stock Market: Tethys, Centerra Gold

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APRIL 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Shares in oil producer Tethys traded up at 1.73% on Monday despite full year results showing that its revenues from oil and gas sales had fallen by 47% to $11.7m.

It blamed the drop in revenue on the devaluation of the tenge in the second half of 2015 and a drop in oil output. Tethys sells most of its production on the domestic Kazakh market.

Despite the drop in revenues, Tethys said that its losses for 2016 were actually smaller than its losses in 2015, perhaps driving the price up 26% on the London Stock Exchange. Tethys if one of the region’s most illiquid stocks.

Most of the savings came in tight cost-cutting in administrative issues. It said that losses for 2016 were $46.9m compared to $74.6m in 2015. Tethys is pulling out of a project with China’s CNPC and France’s Total in Tajikistan because it couldn’t keep up with its call payments. It is also locked in a commercial dispute in Kazakhstan which has meant that the bank accounts of its subsidiary have been frozen.

Despite hitting a 6-month high of C$7.65, analysts have been lining up to give Centerra Gold’s stock a hefty ‘buy’ rating.

CIBC gave it a target rating of C$10 this year and CSFB went even further with a rating of C$10.25. The consensus target price is C$8.08.

The buy ratings appear to be based on strong gold prices which are enough to shrug off Centerra Gold’s spat with the Kyrgyz authorities. Kyrgyzstan wants a direct stake in the Kumtor gold mine, its largest industrial asset, which is wholly owned by Centerra Gold. Instead it currently holds a 32.7%% stake in Centerra Gold.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Georgian Zoo to house Siberian tiger

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APRIL 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tbilisi Zoo will house its first tiger since a flood in 2015 destroyed the site and killed dozens of animals including the zoo’s tigers, media reported. The Siberian tiger is being donated by Riga Zoo. Other zoos have also donated animals to Tbilisi’s zoo, including London Zoo. 19 people were also killed in the flood on June 13 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Armenian fruit firms sign deal with the UAE

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MARCH 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two fruit and vegetable companies in Armenia have signed supply deals with six luxury hotels in the UAE, media reported. The Armenian companies, Tamara Fruit and Natural Organic Healthy Food Company, signed the deals earlier in March at a UAE-Armenia trade meeting in the Dubai. This sort of deal is important for Armenia which is looking to boost its exports.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Georgians celebrate visa-free access to the EU’s Schengen Zone

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TBILISI, MARCH 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgians held street parties and hung the Council of Europe’s blue and gold starred flag from their windows as they celebrated being allowed to travel to the European Union’s Schengen Zone without a visa.

Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili, together with students, journalists and state officials, was one of the first to use the new visa-free regime, taking an early morning flight from Tbilisi to Athens for an academic conference on the future of Europe, before flying on to Brussels.

He hailed the start of a new, increasingly close relationship between Georgia and the EU.

“This is an enormous achievement and a great opportunity for Georgian citizens to better acquaint with the European Union, to better learn the values that the European Union stands on,” he was quoted as saying.

Georgia harbours ambitions to join the EU at some point and, although there is no appetite among EU member states to bring Georgia into the Union, relations are growing increasingly close. Last year Georgia and the EU signed an enhanced Association Agreement that allows Georgian companies to export to the EU.

Under the new rules, Georgians are allowed to travel to the EU’s 26- country Schengen Zone without a visa for 90 days. Georgians citizens will still have to carry documents confirming the purpose of their visit to the EU, including a return air ticket, insurance, a bank statement and accommodation bookings.

Still, most people in Tbilisi were excited by the prospect of visa-free travel to the EU. Miranda, travelled to Vienna on March 29. She said that border controls could not have been easier.

“I travelled the very day next after visa liberalisation was put into force,” she said.

“It was as easy as one can imagine. I met other Georgians at the airport who were travelling without visa. They all made it safely as well.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Russia slaps ban on Tajik flights

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APRIL 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Russian air authorities have once again banned Tajikistan’s privately-owned Somon Air from flying to Russia, an apparent resumption of the row between the two countries earlier this year which cut the number of air-links. Air-links between Russia and Tajikistan are especially important for Tajikistan’s migrant work force which relies on jobs in Russia.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Housing scheme kicks off boom in Kazakhstan

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MARCH 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In the first two months of the year, 18,000 new apartments were built in Kazakhstan, a 23% increase on the same period in 2016, media reported quoting official statistics. The increase is driven by the government housing building scheme unveiled last year called Nurly Zher. The scheme is part- political, part-economic in its aims which are to build homes for 1.5m families over the next 15 years and also to lift the country’s flatlining economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Armenian investors set up IT projects

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MARCH 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A group of Armenian investors have set up a fund to help kick-start IT projects, media reported, boosting Armenia’s reputation as the IT hub of the South Caucasus/Central Asia region. Reports said that the fund was looking to sponsor 10 start-ups with $200,000 each. Armenia’s government has been encouraging the development of an IT sector. It has made deals with Microsoft and an Armenian-US company produces smartphones and tablets in the country.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

China wants to invest in cement production in Uzbekistan

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MARCH 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — China’s Anhui Conch Cement Co. said that it wanted to invest in a 2m tonne/year cement plant in Uzbekistan because of the improve economic conditions in the country. Cement production has become big business in Uzbekistan with Chinese, Turkish and Russian companies all setting up production there, but if Anhui Conch did build a 2m tonne capacity plant it would be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, in the country.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)