Tag Archives: gas

BP says it is confident Azerbaijan’s ACG oil output will be strong

NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP said it expects to maintain last year’s production levels at Azeri Chirag-Guneshli (ACG), the largest oil field complex in Azerbaijan, despite analysts’ predictions that output would fall.

BP, which owns a 35.8% stake in ACG, has been under pressure to ensure that Azerbaijan’s most important oil project doesn’t reduce its output any further.

“We expect that the production on the results of 2015 at the block will not be lower than last year. Current production figures are ahead of the forecasted ones,” Gordon Birrell, BP regional director, told reporters .

Analysts had predicted a drop of 3% in Azerbaijan’s country-wide oil output in 2015 compared to 2014.

In H1 2015, production at ACG declined by 2.3% to 641,000 barrels/day compared to the same period in 2014.

This means that the third quarter report, due in the next few weeks, will have to show an increase in production to cancel out the Q1 drop.

Maintenance work halted operations at West Azeri in May and at Chirag in September. BP said it would carry out further work at Chirag on Nov. 10 for 25 days.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Turkmenistan plans TAPI start

NOV. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan will host the official groundbreaking ceremony for the TAPI pipeline, which will pump gas from fields in the east of the country to consumers in India, via Afghanistan and Pakistan, on Dec. 13. This is important because TAPI has been spoken of for decades.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Petronas ups Turkmen output

NOV. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Petronas Carigali said it wants to increase oil production in the Turkmen section of the Caspian Sea. By year-end, output at the Diyarbekir offshore field should reach 10,000 barrels/day and the company plans to add another 7,000 barrels/day from the Garagol-Western Deniz field. Petronas Carigali is the Turkmen subsidiary of the Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Georgia to buy gas from Iran

NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Keen to boost its imports of gas, Georgian energy minister Kakha Kaladze said that Georgia could buy Iranian gas through either Azerbaijan or Armenia. Mr Kaladze is due in Tehran later this month. Last month he started talking to Russia’s Gazprom about buying more gas, sparking anger from many ordinary Georgians. Georgia and Russia fought a brief war in 2008.

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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Lukoil upgrades Uzbekistan field

NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian oil and gas company Lukoil completed the construction of two electric substations at a major gas field in Uzbekistan. Lukoil is the operating company at the Gissar gas field in the south of the country.

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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

BP to stay at Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz

NOV. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan said it wants BP to remain as the operator in Shah Deniz, the country’s largest gas field. A senior official at SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company, told Reuters that SOCAR and BP will continue cooperation for Phase 3 of the project.

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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Petronas shows interest in pumping Azerbaijani gas

NOV. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Malaysia’s energy company Petronas said it is interested in buying stakes in the TANAP and TAP pipelines pumping gas from Azerbaijan to Europe. In April, Petronas bought Statoil’s 15.5% stake inAzerbaijan’s main gas field, Shah Deniz.

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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Turkmenistan hosts Poroshenko in snub to Moscow

OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a snub to Moscow, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov hosted talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on sending gas to Ukraine.

At the meeting in Ashgabat the two leaders signed several intergovernmental agreements on industrial and agricultural cooperation. Energy, though, was top of the agenda.

No deal was signed but both leaders said progress had been made.

“We are ready to increase supplies to Ukraine of products from our domestic fuel and energy complex and begin implementing joint projects in this sphere,” Mr Berdymukhamedov said according to state media.

Both Ukraine and Turkmenistan have fallen out with the Kremlin.

The Ukrainian government is locked in a protracted civil war in the east of the country against rebel forces funded by Russia. Turkmenistan has fallen out with Russia’s Gazprom over gas contracts. Earlier this year, Mr Berdymukhamedov called Gazprom an “unreliable partner”.

Russia has begun to cut gas supplies to Ukraine, forcing it to look for alternative suppliers. It has also sharply lowered its purchase of Turkmen gas over the past few years.

The biggest problem for Turkmenistan is how to avoid using Russia’s extensive pipeline network to send gas to Ukraine. It is exploring sending gas and oil products across the Caspian Sea, potentially via a new pipeline but also by ship. From there, gas and oil products can be transported to the Black Sea coast and then shipped to Ukraine.

Media said Mr Berdymukhamedov was due in Kiev next year.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Japan’s Sumitomo to build Turkmenistan power plant

OCT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation will build a $300m power plant in Turkmenistan, a significant move for relations between the countries and the Turkmen gas sector.

Sumitomo and state-owned Turkmengaz signed a deal on a new, 400 megawatt gas-fired thermal power plant to be built in the north of the country.

The deal was signed during Japanese PM Shinzo Abe’s visit to Turkmenistan. In total, Japan committed over $18b for various investments in energy and infrastructure projects in Turkmenistan, strengthening economic and diplomatic ties between Tokyo and Ashgabat.

Another Japanese company, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems will provide the gas turbines for the new plant, which is expected to be completed by 2018.

The new plant will allow Turkmenistan to improve its electricity grid, boosting power generation in the north of the country, far removed from the gas-producing regions in the south. Demand for electricity is growing in Turkmenistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Georgia’s energy minister to visit Iran

OCT. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Highlighting increasingly good relations between Georgia and Iran, Georgian energy minister Kakha Kaladze said he would travel to Tehran next month to meet his Iranian counterparts. Georgia needs to increase the amount of gas it imports to meet demand.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)