SEPT. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – French energy company Total will start oil production at its Absheron site in the Caspian Sea in 2021, Reuters quoted Azerbaijani energy minister Natiq Aliyev as saying, a year later than stated. Total owns 40% of Absheron, Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR also owns 40% and GDF Suez owns 20%.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Uzbekistan denied entry to the country to an exiled opposition leader’s wife and son, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported. RFE/RL said Bahodir Choriev’s wife and son had tried to enter Tashkent via a flight from Istanbul.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia stepped up its campaign against former president Mikheil Saakashvili after a court ruled the authorities could seize his property including houses and a vineyard, media reported. Georgia’s prosecutor-general has charged Mr Saakashvili with abuse of office. Mr Saakashvili lives in New York.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan increased oil exports through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline by 70% in the first eight months of the year compared to the same period in 2013, media quoted the national statistics agency as saying. BTC pumps oil from the Caspian Sea to Turkey and then on to Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz PM Djoomart Otorbayev sacked two cabinet ministers, minister of culture Kamila Taliyeva and interior minister Abdyldy Suranchiyev, his first major reshuffle since taking over the job in March.
The sackings are a nod to public dissatisfaction with the government, with reports growing that many ministers are hanging on to their jobs by a thread.
But they may be less about improving the efficiency of government and more about preparations for next year’s parliamentary elections. With a winter energy crisis expected to put pressure on both President Almazbek Atambayev, affiliated to the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, and Mr Otorbayev, loosely associated with the socialist Ata-Meken party, dropping a few unpopular officials makes political sense.
Kyrgyz media reported that both the sacked ministers where disliked, making them easy scapegoats for failings across government but personnel changes are unlikely to spare the government public frustration if the winters are as cold as expected, especially with Kyrgyzstan’s power production struggling.
Ulugbek Erkeshev, a Kyrgyz political journalist, said he has seen it all before.
“At a time when they need to be working together as a government around the clock they are passing portfolios around,” he said.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan produced 6% more cars between January and August this year compared to the same period in 2013, the state’s statistics committee reported. The data shows that the Kazakh economy is still relatively buoyant despite the decline of the all-important Russian economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Remittances to Central Asia from sanctions-hit Russia have fallen by around 8%, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said. Heaviest hit in Central Asia is Uzbekistan which sends back the most remittances from Russia, although this forms a lower proportion of GDP compared to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan is having to play a precarious balancing game to keep competing interests in and around Ukraine happy, Kazakh foreign minister Erlan Idrissov said in an interview with Reuters in New York.
Mr Idrissov was in the United States to meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry to reaffirm the two countries’ friendly ties.
The complexity of Kazakhstan’s position is not just down to its geographically position but also because of its membership of the Kremlin-led Customs Union.
“We as a matter of principle support an independent, sovereign, forward-looking, advancing politically and economically Ukraine. That is the core of our policy towards Ukraine,” Mr Idrissov said in the interview.
“We take no sides.”
The United States and the EU have imposed economic sanctions on Russia which has slowed its economy and triggered a knock-on effect on neighbouring Central Asia. Russian economic growth powers Central Asian economies.
Mr Idrissov underlined the impact of sanctions on Kazakhstan. “The crisis prevents the entire area from focusing on economic development and delivering well-being to the population,” he said.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Energy experts handed out more predictions of energy shortages this coming winter in Kyrgyzstan. One expert, Nikolai Kratsov, told the KNews website electricity could be turned off for up to 15 hours a day. Hydropower generates Kyrgyzstan’s power. Reports say reservoir levels are low.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – There is only one natural resource Tajikistan is indisputably rich in. Water.
With the fresh water reservoirs close to Tehran running low, Iran is trying to work out how to import Tajikistan’s spare water, opening up a tantalising export prospect for Central Asia’s poorest country.
Iranian officials have previously touted the idea of pumping water from Tajikistan to Iran.
According to RFE/RL’s Tajik service, as of 2004 Tehran was prepared to invest $3b in an ambitious pipeline to send water from Tajikistan’s Lake Sarez to Khorasan province in Iran.
The pipeline, which could transit a billion cubic metres of water annually, would also have to travel at least 500 km across Afghanistan.
It’s expensive but when Iranian officials visited Dushanbe they again brought up the prospect, Bloomberg quoted Iran’s Mehr news agency as reporting.
With Iran’s liquidity hampered by UN sanctions, it is no surprise that now that the talk is of a water for oil swap. Tajikistan depends mostly on Russia for its petrol supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)