NOV. 26 (The Bulletin) — At least seven, and not two, guards were killed in an attack on a checkpoint around 40km outside Dushanbe, the RFE/RL website reported by quoting sources inside the security services. This is different from the numbers given out by the Tajik National Security Committee which said that 15 attackers and two guards were killed in the attack on Nov. 6. The extremist group IS claimed the attack.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
ALMATY/NOV. 26 (The Bulletin) –Unplanned maintenance work at the Kashagan oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea has hit output more sharply than expected, Reuters reported by quoting two sources.
The sources said that production at the end of November was around 184,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), down from 400,000bpd at the start of the month. Kazakh officials had previously said that production was down to around 270,000bpd.
Kashagan, which is being developed by Eni, ExxonMobil, CNPC, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Inpex and Kazakh state energy firm Kazmunaigas, has been beset by problems. It opened late and billions of dollars over budget.
There have also been a series of technical problems that have slowed its production. Kashagan is one of Kazakhstan’s biggest oil fields.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
BAKU/NOV. 25 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijani telecoms operator Bakcell finalised a deal to buy Vodafone Ukraine from Russia’s MTS Group for $734m, its first major overseas purchase.
Yusif Jabbarov, Bakcell CEO, said that the purchase of Vodafone Ukraine was only the first of a series of foreign purchases that the company was planning.
“With the acquisition of Vodafone Ukraine, the second telecommunications operator in the Ukrainian market, we continue the strategy of expanding the international presence and entering the new markets by the companies belonging to the NEQSOL Holding group,” he said.
NEQSOL Holding group is a conglomeration owned by Hasib Hasanov, an Azerbaijani businessman reportedly close to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev. It also owns Nobel Oil which wins contracts from the Azerbaijani government in the Caspian Sea.
MTS had owned Vodafone Ukraine, which has no links to the British company, through its Dutch subsidiary Preludium but with a deadlock in the east of Ukraine in a war between government forces and Russia-backed rebels it had become harder for Russian companies to own businesses in Ukraine.
Analysts said the $734m price tag for Bakcell was a discounted price.
MTS has also said that its new strategy is focused on building growth inside Russia. It sold its businesses in Turkmenistan in 2017 and in Uzbekistan in 2016 although it still owns telecoms companies in Belarus and Armenia.
Last year, profits at Vodafone Ukraine fell 18% to 1.8b hryvnia ($72.5m) because of the cost of building new 4G networks.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 25 (The Bulletin) — Thousands of anti-government protesters in Tbilisi continued to blockade Georgia’s parliament as they demonstrated against what they said were promises broken by the Georgian Dream coalition government. This month Parliament voted against introducing a proportional representation system early, at parliamentary elections next year, rather than waiting until 2024 as had previously been agreed.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 25 (The Bulletin) — Hoping for high valuations, Kazakhstan will delay by a year plans to sell off stakes in Air Astana, Kazakhtelecom and energy company Kazmunaigas, media reported by quoting Kazakh finance minister Alikhan Smailov. Stakes in nuclear company Kazatomprom were sold off last year on the London Stock Exchange but the IPOs of other companies have been delayed several times.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 25 (The Bulletin) — Police officers in Turkmenistan have taken up jogging and are rushing to join the gym to lose weight before a Dec. 25 deadline, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
The US-funded news website said that several policemen in Turkmenistan had said that the new interior minister Mammedkhan Chakyev “doesn’t like fat cops” and that they will lose their job if they do not weigh less than 100kg.
Overweight police, with paunches hanging over their belts, are a relatively common sight in Central Asia. Other countries have also previously ordered police to lose weight.
Police across Central Asia have a reputation for being corrupt and incompetent.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 25 (The Bulletin) — A new 150-bedroom Ibis hotel, operated by the Accor Hotels Group, opened in Tbilisi. The Ibis Tbilisi Stadium hotel is the third-largest hotel operating in the Georgian capital. Tourism is booming in Georgia, leading to a surge in hotel construction.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
ALMATY/NOV. 25 (The Bulletin) –Kazakhstan wants to join a Russian project to increase gas supplies to China through a new pipeline, media reported by quoting Kazakh PM Askar Mamin.
China has become the biggest buyer of gas from Central Asia. It already buys most of Turkmenistan’s gas and Kazakhstan has been selling increasingly large volumes to China. Russia is due to start pumping gas through a new pipeline called The Power of Siberia to China on Dec. 2 and has already said that it is looking at options to build more gas pipelines running to China.
In comments to media, Mr Mamin said that Kazakhstan wanted The Power of Siberia-2 to run through its territory.
“Based on the environmental situation in the region, we are also considering the option of joining the future Power of Siberia-2 project,” he said. “Currently, gas prices are negotiated. We have offered Russia that (the pipeline) goes through Kazakhstan with an exit to the Chinese market.”
Gazprom signed a $400b deal in 2014 with China to supply 38b cubic metres of gas every year to China over the next 30 years.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 25 (The Bulletin) — Air Astana, the Kazakh airline owned by Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk Kazyna and BAE Systems, will replace its flight to Paris from Nur-Sultan with a new route from Almaty from June next year. The move may mark a shift back to Almaty acting as the main entry point into Kazakhstan for European airlines. A few years ago, when the government was trying to promote Astana, as Nur-Sultan was known, it insisted that flights should fly into the Kazakh capital.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 22 (The Bulletin) — A Russia-Azerbaijan joint-venture to build a pharmaceutical plant on the edge of Baku is nearing completion, media reported by quoting Azerbaijan’s deputy PM Shahin Mustafayev. The 80m euro plant has been more than a year in the making. Plans for the plant, called Hayat Pharm, show that it is expected to produce 89 different medicines, many for export.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.