Tag Archives: Azerbaijan

Total sells stake in Azerbaijan’s gas project

FEB. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to move out of projects in which it owns only a minority share, Total announced plans to sell its 10% stake in Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz oil field.

Botas, a Turkish pipeline company, confirmed that it is in talks to buy Total’s stake.

There will probably be others interested too. Azerbaijan is an attractive place for countries in the region which need to boost their energy supplies. Last year India’s state-owned ONGC Videsh bought a stake in Azerbaijan’s biggest oil field for $1b.

A Botas spokesman explained the attraction of buying into Shah Deniz. “The acquisition of a 10% stake from Total is commercially profitable,” he told Reuters.

Shah Deniz is the mainstay of Azerbaijan’s gas industry and is currently the subject of a $28b expansion. Some analysts said the cost of the expansion may have triggered Total’s sale plans.

Importantly, a purchase by Botas of Total’s stake would reduce Western Europe’s interest in a gas field which is critical to its long-term energy plans. Azerbaijan has increasingly turned to Turkey, its natural partner, to push through infrastructure and energy projects.

Total is the second major energy company to exit the Shah Deniz project in the Caspian Sea in the past couple of months.

In December, Norway’s Statoil cut its stake in Shah Deniz to 15.5% from 25.5%. Statoil sold this 10% stake for $1.45b to BP and Socar, Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company, indicating that Total may be able to fetch a similar price for its own stake.

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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Consortium invests in Azerbaijan’s oilfield

FEB. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP’s top executive in the Caucasus, Gordon Birrell, told Reuters the consortium exploiting the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil field in the Caspian Sea would invest $2b into the project this year. Azerbaijan has put the BP-led consortium under pressure to stem a decline in oil production at ACG. ACG is the biggest oil field in Azerbaijan.

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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Vietnam agrees to import Azerbaijan’s oil

MARCH 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Petrovietnam, Vietnam’s state-owned energy company, has agreed to buy 3.5m barrels of Azeri crude oil this year, it said in a statement. The deal is a significant success for Azerbaijan which is looking to extend its client base and its international standing.

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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Azerbaijan extends Atletico Madrid sponsorship

MARCH 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s an unusual but, apparently, mutually beneficial deal. For the second year, Azerbaijan has agreed to sponsor the shirts of Spanish football team Atletico Madrid.

The new deal, for an unspecified amount, will mean that Atletico Madrid’s shirts carry the slogan “Azerbaijan: Land of Fire” until June 2015.

“In just one year, we have been able to project the image of Azerbaijan for the world and promote bilateral relations between our countries,” said Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo at a press conference.

It’s a relatively unusual approach for a sovereign state to sponsor a football team but Azerbaijan seems happy with the deal. The Qatar Foundation, run by the wife of Qatar’s ruler, sponsors Barcelona.

But, as is often the case with Azerbaijan, its sponsorship of Atletico Madrid has been mired by recent controversy.

Some Atletico Madrid players were encouraged to make youtube clips commemorating an alleged massacre by Armenian forces in 1992. A plan was also reportedly hatched by Azerbaijani officials for Atletico Madrid players to wear black armbands too. This was later scrapped.

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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Azerbaijan approves loan from Germany

FEB. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s parliament has ratified a 370m euro loan from Germany that will be used to improve various infrastructure including drinking water in some rural regions, media reported. Azerbaijan is looking for both financial and technical help in developing its Soviet-era infrastructure.

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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

ADB approves road project in Azerbaijan

FEB. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to approve a $45m loan next month to finance the reconstruction of road and bridges along the Georgian border, Azerbaijani media reported. The ADB has been instrumental in pushing ahead plans to rebuild Azerbaijan’s Soviet-era infrastructure.

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(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)

Student protest new credit system in Azerbaijan

FEB. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Roughly 500 students at Baku University demonstrated against a new credit system which they said was just another way of trying to increase tuition fees, media reported. According to reports, police detained 12 students. Sizeable protests against the authorities in Azerbaijan are relatively rare.

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(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)

Rights activists worry about Azerbaijani journalist

FEB. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it was concerned about the Azerbaijani authorities’ harassment of journalist Khadija Ismayilova. Last week, officials in Azerbaijan accused Ms Ismayilova of passing documents on prominent Azerbaijanis to US officials. She has previously uncovered government corruption.

(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)

Maltese detained for smuggling birds from Azerbaijan

FEB. 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Customs officials in Malta detained a hunter returning from a trip to Azerbaijan after he tried to smuggle 50 dead birds into the country, media reported. Fifteen of the birds — which included bustards, tits, egrets and wildfowl — are listed as protected species.

(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)

India and Azerbaijan strengthen relations

FEB. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting in Baku between Indian and Azerbaijani officials both sides talked up the importance of a south-north transport corridor.

The idea is to bolster trade through a route that runs from Mumbai to Bandar Abbas in Iran on the Persian Gulf by boat and then on to Azerbaijan by train and into Russia.

Cooperation between India and Azerbaijan has increased over the past couple of years and E.M.S. Natchiappan, the Indian minister for commerce, said this was key to the new trade route.

“The two countries have the requisite momentum to take the relationship to next level,” he said. “Completion of the corridor will lead to mutually beneficial connectivity between the two regions.”

Not only is the plan important for regional commerce but it is also important for regional stability. A busy trade route with India may help smooth over their varying differences between Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran.

Mr Natchiappan said India would test out the suitability of the route later this year.

In 2013, India’s state-owned energy company ONGC Videsh bought a 2.72% stake in Azerbaijan’s Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil field and a 2.36% stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline for $1b from Hess Corp., a US company.

This was an important deal for India because it had been looking to boost its energy reserves after being rebuffed by Kazakhstan. It was also an important deal for Azerbaijan which has wanted to diversify its energy client base and pull in a new trade partner.

(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)