JAN. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nakamichi Corporation Berhad, a Malaysian independent oil company, signed a deal with Aktau Transit to invest $146m in two oil fields in west Kazakhstan. The deal commits the two companies to explore the oil fields.
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)f
JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Shares in Kazakhstan-based copper producer KAZ Minerals pushed up to near a four-year high of 449p on Jan. 25 just before bullish 2016 results.
In the results, CEO Oleg Novachuk also said that output growth will continue in 2017.
“I am pleased that we have achieved our copper and byproduct guidance for 2016, a 73% increase in copper output on the prior year, as we successfully ramped up Bozshakol and the Aktogay oxide plant,” he said. “Our growth will continue in 2017 as Bozshakol reaches capacity and we commence production from sulphide ore at Aktogay.”
Mr Novachuk also said that KAZ Minerals’ results had been pushed up by lower-than-expected costs.
The share price of KAZ Mineral, which used to be called Kazakhmys and has been linked closely to the Kazakh elite, has nearly quadrupled in a year far out-stripping a 30% increase in copper prices. For comparison – at the end of 2015 KAZ Minerals’ share price bottomed out at under 100p.
Stock analysts put the increase down to KAZ Minerals’ new plants coming online. Some also indicated that they thought there more value in the stock in 2017 with a buy rating.
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia agreed to lift restrictions on Tajikistan’s Somon Air flying to the Russian regions after talks in Dushanbe. The routes to Krasnoyarsk, Krasnodar, Ufa and Orenburg by Somon Air are a vital part of the transport infrastructure that allows Tajik migrants to work seasonally across Russia and to send vital remittances home. The Somon Air flights had been banned since mid-December after a row between the two countries’ aviation divisions.
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s government has bought another chunk of equity in the country’s largest bank, International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), another indicator that its banking sector needs propping up to survive.
IBA issued more shares on Jan. 26, allowing the government to increase its stake in it to 76.73% from 54.96%.
The share purchase appears to fly in the face of a statement by Rufat Aslanli, chairman of Azerbaijan’s financial supervisory agency who said in November that the government would privatise IBA in 2017.
The Trend news agency quoted an IBA statement as saying that the government stake increase was needed to shore up the stability of the bank and to protect it from the downturn. Analysts have been warning that Azerbaijan’s banking sector is particularly fragile with many borrowers unable to repay loans. Azerbaijan’s economy shrank by 3.8% last year and its manat currency has halved in value.
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
JAN. 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an interview with the Turkish newspaper Sabah, Socar Turkey Energy director general Zaur Gahramanov said the company was committed to opening a chain of petrol stations throughout Turkey.
Socar is bidding to buy the 1,785 petrol stations belonging to Austria’s OMV in Turkey. Even if Socar’s bid fails it will look to buy up petrol stations in Turkey. Socar owns the Star Refinery in Izmir. The $6b refinery is due to start production in April 2018 and is Socar’s biggest overseas investment.
“The acquisition of OMV Petrol Ofisi is the most suitable option for Socar, but we have alternatives,” he said. “We can launch talks on the acquisition of another company or create a new network in Turkey.”
Socar owns a network of petrol stations in Georgia and has been looking to expand. The collapse in oil and gas prices since 2014 has forced Azerbaijan to change its focus to downstream products and services.
OMV bought the petrol stations between 2006 and 2010 for $2.5b. Aramco, Petromium-C consortium and Vitol are also bidding to buy the petrol station network.
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
JAN. 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan said that it was prepared to enter negotiations with Iran over a disputed gas bill of $1.8b, although it still retains the right to take the dispute to an international court. Turkmenistan cut off gas supplies to Iran last month after accusing it of not paying debts it said had built up from 2007/8. The row has surprised observers who have watched Turkmenistan-Iran relations improve.
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
ALMATY, JAN. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Eurocopter Kazakhstan Engineering, a headline joint-venture set up in 2011 between Kazakhstan Engineering National Company and France’s Airbus Helicopters, has stopped manufacturing helicopters because of the economic slowdown, its CEO, Timur Tilinin, said in an interview with the pro-government Astana Times newspaper.
The company was licensed to manufacture the Eurocopter 145, a twin engine utility helicopter that can be used as passenger transport or for search and rescue missions. It can carry up to nine passengers and two crew.
Mr Tilinin said that Eurocopter Kazakhstan Engineering was the backbone of the Kazakh aviation industry and that it had manufactured 26 Eurocopter 145s since 2011, eight for the ministry of defence and 18 for the ministry of interior’s emergency service.
“Unfortunately, due to the (economic) crisis we halted the project,” he said. “In mid-2015, ECKE launched a transformation plan to move from pure manufacturing to, first, becoming the distributor of Airbus helicopters in all Central Asia and, second, performing maintenance of the aircraft. We do the maintenance of all the helicopters we have produced.”
Moving from manufacturing helicopters to being a distributor service centre will dent the prestige of the project. It also underlines just how heavily Kazakhstan has been hit by the economic downturn.
Government agencies, Eurocopter Kazakhstan Engineering’s only clients, have been hard hit.
Part of the distribution process involves reassembling helicopters which are manufactured in Germany and then dismantled for export.
Kazakhstan is striving to broaden out its industrial base away from oil and gas.
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
JAN. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s energy ministry said that it had found a new oil and gas field in the west of the country. The field, known as Ansagan, is located Zhylyoi region near Atyrau. Officials didn’t give any indication of the scale of the find but said instead that exploration was continuing. Kazakhstan’s economy is reliant on oil and gas.
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JAN. 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — YanAir, a small Ukrainian airline, is planning on running flights from Odessa to Tbilisi and Batumi, media reported. The new routes highlight the increase in air traffic to the South Caucasus. Batumi is being developed as Georgia’s main tourist hub.
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
JAN. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia has banned chicken imports from six regions of Iran because of an outbreak of bird flu, media reported. Trade between Iran and Armenia has increased rapidly over the past few years meaning that the ban will hit chicken supplies in Armenia.
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