Tag Archives: construction

ENI signs deal with Turkmenistan

NOV. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Italian energy company ENI said it had signed a deal with Turkmenistan to extend its operations in the country.

The deal is important for ENI because it has been criticised for its operations in Kazakhstan, particularly its running of the delayed and over budget Kashagan field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea. By extending its presence in Turkmenistan, something that the company has been working on all year, ENI underlines its commitment to Central Asia.

At a signing ceremony alongside Italian PM Matteo Renzi, Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said that ENI had agreed a deal to extend one onshore production sharing agreement and three offshore exploration areas.

“We have come to a conclusion that there must be an active investment ideology present in our countries’ relations,” he said without giving any more terms of the deals.

China is Turkmenistan’s main gas client but Europe is also becoming more important. Earlier this month it signed a deal with a consortium building a pipeline from Baku to central Europe. This pipeline will deliver Turkmen gas to central Europe for the first time.

Turkmenistan is estimated to hold the world’s fourth largest gas reserves.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)

ENI builds shipyard in Kazakhstan

NOV. 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Italian energy major ENI has started to hand out the first contracts to build a shipyard at Kuryk on Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea coast. The shipyard is designed to increase ship building capacity and generate jobs. It was announced as a joint-venture with KazMunaiGaz last year, when the Kazakh economy looked stronger.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)

IDB funds rural housing in Uzbekistan

NOV. 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Islamic Development Bank has agreed to loan Uzbekistan $100m to build extra rural housing, media reported. This is the second major loan by intergovernmental agencies for rural housing in Uzbekistan. In 2011, the Asian Development Bank approved a loan of $500m.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)

Bitumen plant to be established in Turkmenistan

SEPT. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Westport Trading, a US-company, is setting up a processing plant to process high-quality bitumen in the port city of Seidi in Turkmenistan, media reported quoting the Turkmen government newspaper.

Bitumen is a major component for tar production used in road-building and setting up a major factory that is not dominated oil and gas production would be a boost to Turkmenistan’s promise to diversify its economy.

The $78m that the plant will reportedly cost will also generate much needed jobs.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)

China builds cement factory in Kyrgyzstan

AUG. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – China has started work on building a new cement factory in Kyrgyzstan, underlining its commitment to Central Asia. The cement factory will be the biggest in Kyrgyzstan and will cost $70m. China has assumed an increasingly tight grip on Central Asia’s economies.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)

Turkmenistan signs another gas deal

AUG. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has signed another major gas supply deal, underlining its growing status as a regional energy super-power. A Turkish-Japanese consortium will build a $1.7b gas plant in Turkmenistan that will process natural gas into high quality fuel for export. Most of Turkmenistan’s natural gas it pumped to China.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 197, published on Aug. 27 2014)

China keen on Kyrgyz airport

JULY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – China has said it is keen to invest $1b building a new terminal at the Manas airport outside Bishkek, media reported. This is important symbolically. The US military was based at Manas for 13 years flying support missions to Afghanistan and Russia has also said it was interested in investing in the airport.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

Korea wins Turkmen contract

JUNE 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – During a trip to Ashgabat by South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov awarded a $4b contract to build gas processing plants to South Korea’s LG and Hyundai. Ms Geun-hye has been on a week-long tour of Central Asia that has taken in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan too.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Russia helps on new nuclear plant in Kazakhstan

May 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) -Kazakhstan signed a deal with Russia to build a new nuclear plant in Kurchatov, a city in the north-east of the country. Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev has said for years that he wanted to build another nuclear power plant, although the location and partners needed to build it had not been specified.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)

Property prices jump 25% in Kazakhstan’s former capital

APRIL 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Property prices in Almaty have risen by 25% over the past year as the economy rebounds and the city attracts migrants looking for work, media reported. Kazakhstan’s economy is still relatively fragile and the large property price increase has triggered concerns of a bubble.

(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)