JUNE 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan plans to produce the higher grade AI-92 and AI-95 petrol at a refinery in the north of the country, media reported quoting the Kazakh Development Bank. Kazakhstan has a shortage of refined oil products.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
MAY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Outside the financial sector, SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state energy company, is the largest company in Georgia, media reported quoting research from Ilia University in Tbilisi. SOCAR Petroleum Georgia is a SOCAR subsidiary. Its main business in Georgia is a network of petrol stations.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan will start producing AI-95 grade petrol from 2018 to meet higher demand, said the vice president of the state- owned energy company SOCAR, David Mammadov. Azerbaijan currently produces AI-92, a lower grade of fuel. The government has been pushing people to buy more modern cars.
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(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)
>>People in Baku worry that fuel price rises may also accelerate inflation>>
JAN. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil prices may be falling on the world market but in Azerbaijan the cost of filling your car with either petrol or diesel has actually increased.
The government announced that it was putting the price of fuel up by 0.02 manat to 0.7 manat ($0.9) for a litre of petrol and 0.62 manat for diesel.
This sounds like a marginal increase only but, given the 50% drop in oil prices, actually represents a sharp rise.
Independent observers say that this is another attempt to fill the state budget, so dependent on oil revenue, with cash.
The government, though, has said the price increase was due to the inclusion of a road tax on oil products produced in Azerbaijan for domestic consumption, as well as imported from abroad.
In a suburb of Baku, 52-year-old taxi driver Ahmed Huseynov was waiting for customers at a taxi rank. It was a damp, dreary afternoon. The roads and rooftops were sodden and slippery after the first snows of the year.
“Every day we hear on the news that oil prices are decreasing which logically should have led to a decrease in fuel prices too,” he said. “I don’t understand the government’s decision.”
Azad Gayibov, 38, a school teacher and father of two, said the fuel price increases will mean careful budget planning for his family. “It does not mean an increase in fuel prices only, but also a deterioration in the entire economy.”
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(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
NOV. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Protests continued across parts of Kazakhstan over petrol shortages. One protest, captured in a photo essay on the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website showed four men pulling a Soviet-era car to a petrol station near Almaty with a donkey cart.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan agreed a deal for Astana to meet most of Bishkek’s electricity deficit, albeit at a price greater than Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev would have wanted to pay.
The deal, finalised during a meeting between Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Mr Atambayev in Astana, means Kyrgyzstan must pay roughly three times more for the imported electricity than Kyrgyz citizens pay for domestically-produced electricity. Importantly, it also shows Kazakhstan’s political clout in Kyrgyzstan is growing.
An estimated deficit of 2b kilowatt hours (kWh) this year, caused by a shortage of water in its reservoirs, public reaction to shutoffs drove Bishkek and the potential to sign the deal.
Mr Atambayev will be relieved to have made the deal to import 1.4b kWh from Kazakhstan but here are still problems. He will have to make up the shortfall from somewhere else, possibly Turkmenistan, and he will have to finance the extra costs.
Currently the government has suggested modest tariff increases beginning Jan. 1. These are bound to irritate people in Kyrgyzstan.
Other agreements reached by Mr Atambayev and Mr Nazarbayev at the meeting are also indicative and suggested that Kazakhstan maintains significant leverage over its weaker neighbour.
Mr Nazarbayev promised that a fleet of Kyrgyzstan-bound fuel wagons, owned by Russian energy giant Rosneft and held by Kazakh customs officials without explanation since April, would be allowed to cross the two countries’ mutual border. He also pledged a $100 million grant to Kyrgyzstan as the country prepares to enter the Eurasian Economic.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
OCT. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani media has refuted a suggestion by Kazakh deputy energy minister Uzakbay Karabalin that it will be able to supply Kazakhstan with enough fuel to make up for its on-going shortfall. Kazakhstan is looking for options to make up for the shortfall, which is frustrating ordinary people.
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(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)
OCT. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Repairs and upgrades to Kazakhstan’s three oil refineries should mean that by 2016 or 2017 the country is self-sufficient in petrol, Kazakh energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik said in comments to parliament. Kazakhstan’s energy ministry has ruled out building a fourth oil refinery to meet demand.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian energy companies Lukoil and Bashneft will supply Kazakhstan with extra petrol and diesel fuel to make up for the current shortfall, Russian news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Russia’s energy minister, Alexander Novak, as saying. Kazakhstan has a shortage of refinery capacity which is causing shortages.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Aktobe region in northwest Kazakhstan is on the brink of running out of petrol, the regional government’s business head Bagzhan Tlegenov said. Supplies of petrol have been particularly tight since August because of low refinery capacity in Kazakhstan and falling imports from Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
