JAN. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil production at the BP-led Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli oil fields (ACG) continued to fall last year despite pledges that the drop would drop, Reuters quoted a source at Azerbaijan’s national statistics office as saying. ACG is Azerbaijan’s largest oil field.
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(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)
JAN. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The drop in the price of gas and oil will hit Turkmenistan’s economy, although it will still grow by nearly 10% in 2015, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said in its updated growth forecasts. Turkmenistan’s economy is protected somewhat by contracts with China.
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(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)
JAN. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan may increase its gas production by 9% this year, media reported quoting the state information service. Already one of the biggest regional gas producers, Turkmenistan boosted gas exports by 11% last year, mainly to China. The drop in global energy prices will impact the Turkmen government budget.
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(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
JAN. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s Gazprom has given up searching for oil in two of its four exploration blocks in Tajikistan, media reported. Interfax, a Russian news agency, said that Gazprom had been working since 2003 on the projects. It still plans to explore its two remaining blocks. Tajikistan has said that it hopes a major oil and gas discovery will boost its economic prospects.
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(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
>>Sackings come shortly after currency devaluation>>
JAN. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s been a busy start to 2015 for Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. He ordered the devaluation by 20% of the manat on Jan. 1 and now he has sacked both the head of the state gas company Turkmengaz and the head of the Central Bank.
Mr Berdymukhamedov appears frustrated at the relative sluggish nature of recent growth in the Turkmen economy. Much of this can be attributed to the 50% fall in energy prices and the drop in the value of the Russian rouble, so important for the economies of Central Asia.
But Mr Berdymukhamedov said that Turkmengaz head Kakageldy Abdullayev was to blame.
“We could have raised production and exports of liquefied gas and other products which are in great demand on world markets,” Reuters quoted him telling a government meeting.
Mr Berdymukhamedov is fond of culling his top officials. Mr Abdullayev had only been in the job for a year. His replacement was named as Charymuhammed Hommadov.
The day before, Mr Berdymukhamedov had also sacked the head of the Central Bank, the head of the state-run Prezidentbank and also the agriculture bank Daikhanbank.
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(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 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)
DEC. 27 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — With gas supplies limited this winter, Kyrgyzstan has been reverting back to coal to keep its electricity and heating on, media reported. Media reported that state-owned coalminers produced 1.5m tonnes of coal in the first 11 months of last year, up by 22% from a year earlier.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
JAN. 5 2015, (The Conway Bulletin) — Crude oil and oil product shipments from the Georgian port of Batumi fell by around 22% in 2014 compared to 2013 because of lower than expected exports from Kazakhstan and re-routing through pipelines, a port official told Reuters. Batumi oil terminal is controlled by Kazakh state energy company KazMunaiGas.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
>>Re-starting gas supplies could improve relations>>
DEC. 30 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan has restarted gas supplies to Kyrgyzstan, ending an eight-month embargo.
This is significant as Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan relations had seemingly been drifting from bad to worse over border rows, water management and energy issues. Analysts had identified the cross-border tension as potentially destabilising to the whole region.
Media quoted Tahir Alimov, deputy director in Osh for Gazprom Kyrgyzstan, as saying that the gas started
flowing once again from Uzbekistan at 3am on Dec. 30. The resumption of gas supplies will be a major boon to Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev.
Kyrgyzstan has been negotiating with other countries across Central Asia to make up for the shortfall in Uzbek deliveries but, realistically, Kyrgyz officials were always going to fall short of making up for the lack of Uzbek gas.
Uzbekistan had switched off the gas supply to Kyrgyzstan in April when the current deal expired. Uzbekistan said that Kyrgyzstan didn’t want to negotiate a new deal.
Kyrgyzstan said that Uzbekistan wanted too high a price. At the same time Russia’s Gazprom completed a deal to buy Kyrgyzstan’s gas company and it seems that it, and not the Kyrgyz government, was able to negotiate a new deal.
Kyrgyz news agency 24.kg said that Uzbekistan and a Switzerland-based Gazprom-owned company had renegotiated the deal.
Perhaps, Gazprom has acted as a peace-maker.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
DEC. 26 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — Chinese energy company CNPC said it wanted to develop new gas fields in Uzbekistan. It wants to invest $277m in three fields — Dengizkul, Khojadavlat and East Alat — over the next five years. The announcement helps to secure China’s place as Central Asia’s biggest gas client.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
