DEC. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has continued to invest its energy revenues aboard, media reported. It quoted the Central Bank’s website as saying that in the first three quarters of 2013, Azerbaijan had spent $8.8b abroad. Over the past couple of years Azerbaijan has invested in overseas property and currencies as a long-term investment strategy.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A consortium of foreign energy companies led by BP officially signed a deal to develop the second phase of the Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea with the Azerbaijani government. The deal will trigger the start of a $45b project that should, from 2019, deliver 20% of the EU’s gas.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A change in Azerbaijan’s law will mean that foreign NGOs working in the country will have to appoint a local Azerbaijani to be its deputy chief. The Azerbaijani government has become increasingly suspicious of foreign NGOs. It has blamed them for an increase in anti-government action.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a surprise announcement, Statoil, the Norwegian state-owned energy company, said it was selling a 10% block of its 25.5% stake in the Shah Deniz gas project in the Caspian Sea.
Statoil and France’s Total have also pulled out of the consortium building the TANAP pipeline that will pump gas to Europe from the Caspian Sea to Europe after Turkey said it wanted to increase its stake in the project.
Neither moves are hardly a ringing endorsements of Azerbaijan or Caspian Sea energy.
Statoil will sell its 10% stake in the Shah-Deniz project for a total of $1.45b. Analysts said that the price was a good one for Statoil. BP will buy a 2.3% stake and SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s energy company, will buy a 6.7% stake.
Shah Deniz-2 will cost $45b and provide up to 20% of the EU’s gas needs from 2018. It was finalised on Dec. 17 in Baku. It will also turn Azerbaijan into a major global gas supplier and reduce its dependency on Russia as a conduit for its gas. More pipelines, including TANAP, are being built directly from the Caspian Sea to Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to invest $500m into projects run by the Azerbaijani state over the next three years, media quoted the organisation’s representative in Baku, Olly Norojono, as saying. Mr Norojono also said that the ADB’s investment portfolio in Azerbaijan was currently $1.2b up from $500m in 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a new report, the media freedom lobby group the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ranked Azerbaijan as one of the worst 10 countries in the world for locking up reporters and editors the authorities dislike. Media and human rights groups have criticised Azerbaijan throughout the year for its heavy handed treatment of journalists.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Keen to expand its overseas presence, Azerbaijan opened its first embassy in Vietnam. Both Azerbaijan and Vietnam have invested heavily in their energy sectors in recent years. The Azerbaijani government has said that it wants to open more embassies.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Baku arrested Anar Mammadli, a relatively high-profile election monitor who had criticised the government, for tax evasion illegal entrepreneurship and falsifying vote results.
A government crackdown on dissidents has characterised the last few years in Azerbaijan and opposition leaders were quick to describe the arrest of Mr Mammadli as political.
They could also have described it as clunky.
A few days after police arrested Mr Mammadli, foreign dignitaries, including Britain foreign minister William Hague were in Baku to witness the final signing of a new investment project by a consortium of foreign energy companies led by Britain’s BP to develop the second phase of the giant Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea.
Human rights groups didn’t miss an opportunity to criticise Western countries for buying energy from Azerbaijan.
Mr Mamadli was head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center which receives funding from the US’ National Democratic Institution. His supporters said that the government has been trying to silence him for years.
The day before his arrest, the Azerbaijani authorities sanctioned a seemingly anti-government rally. It was attended by a few hundred people in a square on the outskirts of Baku. They demonstrated against rising prices and shouted support for pro-EU demonstrators in Kiev.
The authorities may have sanctioned the protest to show visiting foreign dignitaries that dissent has a voice in Azerbaijan. If that was their aim, the arrest of Mr Mammadli severely dents that perception.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The second phase development of the Shah Deniz gas field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea will cost $40b, the regional president for BP’s operations in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, Gordon Birrell said. BP is the operator for Shah Deniz, considered to be the main driver of Azerbaijan’s future prospects.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Global Witness, the anti-corruption lobby group, published a report that alleged widespread use of offshore accounts and shell companies to move cash out of state-owned energy company SOCAR. Azerbaijan denied any wrongdoing.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)