Tag Archives: business

Car imports fall in Azerbaijan

SEPT. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s customs committee said that car imports in Jan.-Aug. 2016 fell by 6.1% compared to the same period last year. In total, Azerbaijan imported 3,454 vehicles, mostly passenger cars. Over the past three years, car imports have fallen sharply in Azerbaijan, after the manat currency has lost around half its value during two devaluations and the ditching of the US dollar peg.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Kyrgyz miner names new non-executive chairman

SEPT. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Martin Andersson, Chaarat Gold’s largest shareholder, became non-executive chairman of the British Virgin Island-registered mining company developing gold projects in Kyrgyzstan. Mr Andersson is the owner of Labro Investments, which holds a 25.2% stake in Chaarat.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Azerbaijan’s energy exports drop

SEPT. 20/21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s oil and gas exports have fallen this year, according to government sources. Gas exports for the first seven months of 2016 amounted to 4.6b cubic metres, 8.6% lower than in the same period last year, Interfax reported. Oil exports in Jan.-Aug. fell to 33.3m tonnes, down 4.2% compared to last year, government sources told Reuters. Oil exports in particular are vital for the Azerbaijani economy. With both the value and volume of oil exports dropping, government revenues have dried up.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Business comment: Tethys Woes

SEPT. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Guernsey-based oil company Tethys Petroleum never seems to catch a break.

This time last year it had just turned down a takeover offer from Amsterdam-based Nostrum Oil & Gas, also focused on Central Asia. But its financial outlook remained uncertain and it was still on the market for investors.

In the last months of 2015, the obscure Kazakh oil company Olisol came forward with a proposal to buy a large share of Tethys in exchange for much-needed cash.

This appeared to be the salvation that Tethys, buffeted by the slump in oil prices, needed. Tethys saluted the prospective deal as a life-saving opportunity.

But then hiccups in Kazakhstan and legal disputes with its partners in Tajikistan began churning up Tethys’ road to stability.

Now it faces legal prosecution in Kazakhstan and an arbitration in Tajikistan, which could turn ugly.

Plus repeated delays in securing funding from Olisol have put investors and managers under severe stress. This can easily be spotted by looking at the company’s stock price, which jumps and falls at every update.

In mid-August, its stock price nearly doubled in one day, reaching a four-month high, after Tethys announced that it had cleared an important regulatory hurdle in its recapitalisation efforts.

Now, Tethys’ stock price has settled back at 1.5p/share, an average it has kept in the second half of 2016, quite far down from the 64p it traded at in March 2012.

But those were the days of high oil prices and big spending. It’s a very different picture now.

With oil prices still hovering at around $45/barrel, the future looks as uncertain as ever for Tethys.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Kazakhstan’s Kashagan close to opening

SEPT. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s energy minister, Kanat Bozumbayev, said that production at the offshore oil field of Kashagan will resume on October 23, three years after its sudden interruption due to leaky pipes. Kashagan, discovered in 2000, is one of the largest finds in the oil industry’s recent history. Its reopening has been touted as crucial to give the Kazakh energy sector the boost it needs to move into the World’s premier division of producers.

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