Tag Archives: Azerbaijan

EU criticises Azerbaijan over human rights

DEC. 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EU and human rights groups criticised Azerbaijan for sentencing to 10 years two anti-government activists who said they were tortured by police. The day before, a court had sentenced Bayram Mammadov and Giyas Ibrahimov on drug related charges. They were detained earlier this year for graffiting anti-government slogans on a statue of former Azerbaijani leader Heydar Aliyev. The drug-related charges were added later and their supporters say they have been made up to increase prison sentences.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)f

Trump cancels hotel deal with Azerbaijan

DEC. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — US President-elect Donald Trump’s business cancelled a licensing deal it had made in Azerbaijan, media reported. Mr Trump had been criticised during the US presidential campaign for making a deal to lend his name to a hotel development project in Baku linked to senior members of the Azerbaijani elite who had previously been accused of money laundering.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)f

Oil platform collapses in Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, 1 oil worker killed and 9 missing

DEC. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nine oil workers were missing after an oil rig partially collapsed during a storm in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea that killed at least one person, Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR said.

The collapse came almost exactly a year after a fire on two Azerbaijani oil platforms killed 30 oil workers in the worst offshore accident in the energy sector since 167 people died in the Piper Alpha fire in the North Sea in 1988.

The latest accident will embarrass SOCAR and Azerbaijan’s oil sector because it had promised to improve safety after the deaths in 2015.

Much of the infrastructure that SOCAR uses in the Caspian Sea is decades old and Azerbaijan has been heavily criticised for not updating and modernising its structures.

The oil industry is also vital to the Azerbaijani economy. It has been under pressure to maintain oil output despite the aging infrastructure and aging fields.

SOCAR officials said that emergency services are still looking for the nine missing oil workers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Stock market: OPEC

DEC. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The collapse in oil prices since 2014 has hit the economies of Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Every now and then, though, a new touted solution emerges, be it maximising oil output to earn as much as possible or freezing output and waiting for sunnier days.

Both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, the main producers in our region, have played with the idea of “freezing” oil production, although this is more a reflection of a drop in production at aging oil fields rather than a conscious choice. An agreement reached between members of OPEC and other producers seems to have solved the headache in the medium-term. The parties pledged to cut output, forcing prices up.

This measure, however, lasted just a few days.

After the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in one year on Wednesday, the US dollar soared against all commodities, cancelling out the progress made after the OPEC-sponsored meeting.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Azerbaijan to switch to fully floating currency in 2017

DEC. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan plans to switch to a fully floating currency next year, the Central Bank said, signalling more turbulence for the manat.

The Central Bank has relaxed the manat’s peg to the US dollar twice in the past couple of years, allowing it, in effect to lose half its value. It has also been managing a fall of around 19.5% since June to trade at 1.79/$.

Media quoted the head of the Central Bank, Elman Rustamov, as saying that macro-stability meant that the time was now right to move to a fully floating currency.

Many Azerbaijanis would disagree, though.

As The Conway Bulletin has reported previously, many ordinary Azerbaijanis have lost confidence in the manat and have been trying to withdraw their savings and convert them into US dollars. Many banks in Baku have run out of US dollars.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Oil output drops in Azerbaijan

DEC. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan produced around 1.5% less oil and gas condensate in the first 10 months of the year, media quoted its statistics committee as saying, reflecting its inability to maintain production. Azerbaijan has previously used OPEC oil cuts as a fig leaf to explain its falling production. The reality is, though, that it hasn’t been able to maintain output.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Azerbaijan gets its F1 Grand Prix

DEC. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — >> Why was Azerbaijan so keen to have the European Grand Prix renamed? Why is this important to President Aliyev?

>> It’s a PR thing. Azerbaijan lobbied hard to host one of Formula One’s Grand Prix races. It was given the so-called European Grand Prix to host this year in Baku, a race that was generally seen as a success. The course wound its way through the old town of Baku, creating a real test for the drivers and a spectacle for the spectators. The organisers of the F1 series were keen to repeat the course next year and so were the Azerbaijani authorities. They insisted though that the European Grand Prix title gives way to Azerbaijan Grand Prix. F1 is one of the most watched sports in the world. Having its name on a Grand Prix will help Azerbaijan’s brand. Or at least that is what the Azerbaijani authorities think.

>> Okay, but what is the European Grand Prix? I thought that most of the races were named after their host country.

>> You’re right, most of the races are named after the host country but there has been a European Grand Prix for decades. It was originally an honorific title but as the sport professionalised it became a way for F1 to award more than one race to a single country. In essence they could host their own national F1 Grand Prix plus the European Grand Prix. The race disappeared after 2013 but was revived in 2016 for Baku.

>> Makes sense to name each race after their host country, if you ask me. Why, though, is Azerbaijan is so keen to host a Grand Prix? Is must be expensive.

>> It is very expensive, although the Azerbaijani authorities were coy on how much they spent putting the Grand Prix on. We do know, though, that it caused major problems for local residents who had to deal with street closures around the event. Hosting a Grand Prix is seen as a high point in Azerbaijan’s drive to promote itself through sport. It has sponsored the Atletico Madrid football team, with the slogan: “Azerbaijan: Land of Fire”, staged the 2015 European Games in Baku and is one of the host countries for the 2020 European Football Championships. Sponsoring the Atletico Madrid shirt was considered a success for Azerbaijan as the team reached the Champions League Final in 2014. They lost the match 4-1 to arch rivals Real Madrid. The Europeans Games were less successful. The Games proved unpopular with both spectators and athletes, with mainly second string athletes competing. A bus also crashed into a group of Austrian synchronised swimmers inside the Olympic Village shortly before the start of the Games, badly injuring three of them.

>> That’s quite an impressive range of sports that Azerbaijan has been hosting and supporting. What about their national teams? How do they stack up?

>> Other then wrestling, weightlifting and boxing, not great. The football team is ranked at 90th in the world, just behind Kenya but ahead of Togo. Azerbaijan has always been considered a global chess power, though.

>> And, finally, back to the European Grand Prix of 2015. Who won it?

>> German Nico Rosberg won the race in his Mercedes. He went on to win the Formula One Championships. The 31-year-old quit racing shortly afterwards, though, so he wont be back in Baku to defend his victory.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

Azerbaijani Central Bank defends economy policy

DEC. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s manat currency dropped to its lowest ever level against the US dollar, continuing a decline that has wiped 18% off its value since June.

The collapse in the value of the manat, linked to still-subdued oil prices and weaknesses in the Russian economy, is stoking inflation. The lack of confidence in the manat has also triggered a run on US dollars, with many high street banks and exchange offices running out of the greenback.

On Nov. 30, the Azerbaijani Central Bank was forced to defend its policies.

Elman Rustamov, the Central Bank chief, told parliament that he was pursuing a tight monetary policy but he also admitted that the banking system was under strain.

“There are similarities between stabilisation and development,” he said. “If we don’t achieve macroeconomic stability, no investor will have confidence in us.”

International economists expect Azerbaijan’s economy to shrink by around 3% this year, underscoring the problems it is facing. In September, in an effort to prop up its manat currency, the Central Bank raised interest rates to 15% from 9.5%.

But on the streets of Baku, the mood is glum. A Bloomberg reporter said that only one of the nine banks he visited on Nov. 28 sold US dollars. Importantly too, he reported that the Black Market exchange rate for buying US dollars with manat was 5% higher than the official rate, an indication of the lack of confidence in the currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

BTC flows to drop, according to Azerbaijan’s state budget

NOV. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline will drop oil transport next year, according to a forecast in Azerbaijan’s state budget. In 2017, BTC will transport 31m tonnes, down from 32.5m tonnes that the government forecast for this year. In 2016, exports via BTC increased, but the share of Azerbaijan’s SOCAR in pipeline sales decreased in favour of its foreign partners.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

Domestic violence rises in Azerbaijan

NOV. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Giving a rare insiders’ view of domestic life in Azerbaijan, MP Elmira Akhundova said that violence against women by their husbands was rising. Media quoted her as saying that punishments must be increased for men who kill or injure their wives. Official government statistics have said that domestic violence in Azerbaijan has halved over the past couple of years because, the authorities have said, of harsh new punishments. Activists, though, have refuted this and said that the government simply makes up the numbers for its own benefit.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)