Tag Archives: gas

Azerbaijan-Georgia gas corridor to complete on time

MAY 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an interview with Reuters, BP’s Georgia country manager, Chris Schlueter said that the middle section of the $40b Southern Gas Corridor would be completed on time in 2018. This is important because it indicates that the entire pipeline system, running from Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea coast across Georgia and Turkey into the Balkans and across the Aegean Sea to Italy may be operational by 2020 as promised. The Southern Gas Corridor is supposed to reduce Europe’s reliance on gas supplies from Russia and also boost Azerbaijan’s economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)

Azerbaijan-focused Abershon to produce by 2019

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APRIL 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Abershon field in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea, operated by France’s Total, could start gas production in late 2019 or early 2020, an official at Azerbaijan’s state energy company Socar said. Aberson is considered to be a potentially major gas producer for Azerbaijan which is heavily reliant on the energy sector for revenue. The field was discovered in 2011.

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(News report from Issue No. 326, published on April 28 2017)

Kazakh state energy producer to boost investments

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APRIL 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a clear sign of renewed confidence that oil prices will stay at around $50-55/barrel, KMG EP, the London-listed division of the Kazakh state energy producer Kazmunaigas said that it was going to raise its capital expenditure by 12% to 133b tenge ($369m). The company said that the extra investment would be used to improve the efficiency of existing projects.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)

EnerMech secures BP deal in Azerbaijan

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APRIL 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Aberdeen-based oil and gas services company EnerMech said that it had won contracts worth £40m ($50m) in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea to manage BP’s crane operations. John Guy, EnerMech’s regional director for the Middle East, Asia and Caspian, said that the company employs 300 people in the region and sees Azerbaijan as an important, and growing, part of its business.

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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)

Georgia to buy all its gas from Azerbaijan

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APRIL 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian energy minister Kakha Kaladze said that Georgia would not purchase any more gas from Gazprom until the end of the year and will instead buy all its gas from Azerbaijan. Gas purchases from Gazprom have been controversial for Georgia after it signed a deal at the beginning of the year changing the arrangement from a barter deal to a paid-for deal. Mr Kaladze has refused to name the price agreed with Gazprom for gas purchases, fuelling speculation that he had agreed to pay too high a price. Mr Kaladze has always maintained that the deal gives Georgia more flexibility, including being able to choose how much gas to buy from Gazprom.

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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)

Lukoil hits gas production landmark in Uzbekistan

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APRIL 5 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s Lukoil said it had reached what it described as a landmark production level of 40b cubic metres of gas at its projects in Uzbekistan, more than two-thirds of total Uzbek gas output. It said that most of this gas was produced at its two fields near Bukhara — Khauzak-Shady and Kuvachi-Alat. Lukoil is one of Uzbekistan’s biggest foreign investors. Uzbekistan has proven gas reserves of 1.1 trillion cubic metres, according to BP. This is roughly the same as Azerbaijan.

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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)

Gazprom pays knockdown price for Uzbek gas

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APRIL 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian media reported that Gazprom will pay only $125/1,000 cubic metres of gas from Uzbekistan, a relatively low amount. The supply deal between Uzbekistan and Gazprom had been struck at the beginning of April when Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited Moscow and was hailed as a groundbreaking agreement. Analysts, though, have said that a price of $125/1,000 cubic metres is low and represents only $2.5b/year for the five year contract.

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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)

BP wants contract extension on Azerbaijan’s ACG oil fields

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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)

Stock Market: Nostrum

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MARCH 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nostrum, the London-listed oil company with assets in Kazakhstan, saw its share price fall 11% to 416p, its lowest price since the start of the year, after full year results for 2016 showed a sharp fall in revenues.

It said that revenue was down by $100m to $348m because of sustained low oil prices. Its chairman, Frank Monstrey, said that 2016 had been one of the most difficult years on record although cost cutting had reduced losses.

“Nostrum has not wavered during one of the most challenging years for the oil and gas industry in over a decade,” he was quoted as saying by media. “We have navigated 2016 with caution and great care to ensure our vision remains intact.”

Nostrum has been one of the best performing Central Asia/South Caucasus stocks this year, surging to an 18-month high of 518p at the start of March.

A drop in oil prices and the tough trading figures from 2016 put a dampener on this buy analysts are still backing it.

Brokerage Credit Suisse gave the Nostrum stock an ‘outperform’ rating with a target price of 535p for this year.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Roxi wants merger in Kazakhstan

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MARCH 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — London-listed Roxi Petroleum said that it was trying to merge with Switzerland-based Baverstock to create a new company called Caspian Sunrise. Under the offered deal, Baverstock which already owns 10.45% of Roxi, would take control of an additional 41% stake in the new company. The new company’s main asset is the BNG contract area in Kazakhstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)