Tag Archives: pipelines

KazTransGas talks with Georgia

OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — KazTransGas, Kazakhstan’s state owned gas distributor, warned Georgia it might take their dispute over its subsidiary to international arbitration if Georgia failed to restart negotiations. KazTransGas is looking for compensation for the $130m it spent on its subsidiary KazTransGas-Tbilisi in 2006-09 before the Georgian government took control of the company.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Azerbaijan’s oil output falls in BTC

OCT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil flows through the Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan pipeline fell by 1% in the first nine months of 2015 compared to the same period last year, an unnamed source at Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company SOCAR told Reuters. Oil output in Azerbaijan has been falling over the past few years.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Azerbaijan begins TANAP work

SEPT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has begun work on the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) project, part of the route that will carry gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe, local media quoted Rovnag Abdullayev, the chairman of Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company SOCAR, as saying. Mr Abdullayev said that 400km of pipes had been delivered to TANAP.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Kazakh gas utility to issue bond

SEPT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — KazTransGaz Aimak, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state-owned gas transit system, said it plans to issue Eurobonds for 5b tenge ($18.6m) to refinance its outstanding debt. KazTransGas Aimak, which controls the gas distribution system in the Almaty region, has an outstanding bonds issue of 8.6b tenge ($31.9m) maturing in December 2018.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

TAPI to start in Dec – Turkmenistan

SEPT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan will begin construction on the multi-billion- dollar gas pipeline running from its fields in the east of the country to India in December, Reuters quoted an unnamed government official as saying. This is the strongest indication yet that work is about to being on the so-called TAPI pipeline.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

CPC pipeline upgrades pumping stations in Kazakhstan

ALMATY, SEPT. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), has finished upgrade work to two pumping stations that will boost the capacity of its oil pipeline running from west Kazakhstan to Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

Plans to increase the capacity of the Tengiz field near Atyrau have been delayed because of low oil prices, but the gradual expansion of the CPC’s capacity is still important.

Specifically, the latest upgrade work was focused on the pipeline’s two pumping stations in Kazakhstan. The upgrade will boost the flow of oil through the pipeline to 38m tonnes of oil from 35m.

This is a stepping stone towards hitting higher capacity. Nikolai Savin, a deputy vice-president at Russian pipeline company Transneft, explained the consortium’s ambitions.

“The expansion will allow us to increase the volume of transported oil to 67-70m tonnes a year,” local media quoted him as saying. “In the future, the Kazakh fields at Tengiz, Karachaganak and Kashagan will ship around 55m tonnes through CPC.”

CPC, which was established in 2001, is an international pipeline jointly operated by the Russian and Kazakh governments together with national and multinational oil companies led by US’ Chevron. Chevron is also the lead Western partner developing the Tengiz field in the Tengizchevroil consortium (TCO).

The Tengiz field is Kazakhstan’s main oil producer, pumping roughly 27m tonnes of oil each year. This is a third of Kazakhstan’s total oil production. Almost all of the oil produced by Tengiz is exported via CPC.

For years, TCO has been planning to expand production. The project was suspended, though, earlier this year because of the sustained low oil prices, frustrating both investors and the Kazakh government.

According to Sauat Mynbayev, Chairman of Kazmunaigas, Kazakhstan’s state-owned company which holds shares in both CPC and TCO, a final investment decision for Tengiz will be made in Jan. 2016 (Sept. 17). In any case, he said costs had been cut.

“When it was planned, the TCO expansion was quoted at $38b,” Mr Mynbayev told the Interfax news agency. “In the current circumstances, we decided to re-negotiate with all contractors to bring the cost down to around $34b.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)

Turkmen president travels to Kabul

AUG. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov visited Kabul and signed a series of deals with his Afghan counterparts, highlighting just how important he views improved relations between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

The bilateral deals were not particularly ground-breaking — two leaders agreed to share financial data more readily as well as improve improve cooperation in the energy and tech sectors — but the trip itself was important.

Although he is beginning to travel more and more, Mr Berdymukhamedov is not a particularly keen traveller so a high- profile meeting with Afghan president Mohammad Ashraf Ghani in Kabul is eye-catching.

Mr Berdymukhamedov is worried about the northward march of the Taliban and stability in general in the country.

Earlier this year, reports surfaced which said that Turkmen soldiershadpositioned themselves inside Afghan territory after a series of attacks on their border posts by the Taliban.

Afghanistan is also now a partner in the so-called TAPI gas pipeline project which is planned to run from fields in the east of Turkmenistan to India.

Without stability in Afghanistan and a strong central government the project is likely to remain just a pipe dream.

Expect more Kabul-bound trips by Mr Berdymukhamedov.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Gas flow restarts on Azerbaijani pipeline

SEPT. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gas flows along the Baku-Tbilisi-Er- zurum pipeline have resumed after a second attack by Kurdish rebels, the head of BP-Azerbaijan’s press service Tamam Bayatli told Azerbaijani media.

Kurdish rebels have twice attacked a section of the pipeline in Turkey over the past month. On each occasion, BP said gas flows had barely been impacted as the pipeline had either been empty or running at reduced capacity for maintenance.

The PKK group has claimed responsibility for the two attacks and said that it will mount more despite a pledged by the Turkish security forces to strengthen security.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline, sometimes referred to as the South Caucasus pipeline, is an important part of the network pumping gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe. Its main feeder is Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz project which is being enlarged to produce more gas for Europe.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Turkmen leader travels to Kabul

AUG. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov travelled to Kabul to meet with Afghan president Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, an important signifier that he wants to play a greater role in improving his neighbour’s stability. Turkmenistan has developed a handful of high profile projects with Afghanistan, including the TAPI pipeline that will pump gas to India.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 245, published on Aug. 28 2015)

Turkmengaz to lead TAPI

AUG. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India have picked Turkmengaz, the Turkmen national gas company, to lead the construction of the so-called TAPI pipeline which, they hope, will pump gas from Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 242, published on Aug. 7 2015)