Tag Archives: business

Telia sells Tajik assets

SEPT. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sweden’s Telia Company sold its 60% stake in Tcell to the Aga Khan Fund, which owned 40% of the Tajik telecoms operator . Telia said it will earn $39m from the sale. The sale is in line with Telia’s goal of dropping stakes in companies it owned in Central Asia and the South Caucasus after investigations into corruption practices in the region were launched.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 295, published on Sept. 9 2016)

Russia temporarily cuts gas supplies to Armenia

SEPT. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s gas distributor said that it will cut Russian gas supplies to Armenia for one week from Sept. 7 to carry out maintenance work on a section of the pipeline that crosses the country from the Caucasus. This is the second time in two months that the pipeline has been closed for maintenance and the cuts highlight the importance of Armenia’s negotiations with Iran to boost supplies from the south.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 295, published on Sept. 9 2016)

Pakistan wants Turkmenistan more involved in CASA-1000

SEPT. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Pakistan said it wanted Turkmenistan to be more involved in the CASA-1000 electricity transmission project and drop plans to build an alternative electricity supply route. CASA-1000 is a World Bank-backed $1.2b plan to bring electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Turkmenistan has pledged to either join the project or supply electricity to Pakistan via alternative routes.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 295, published on Sept. 9 2016)

BP expects flat oil output in Azerbaijan

SEPT. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — British oil company BP said it expects flat oil output in Azerbaijan in 2017. BP also expects oil prices to hover around $40- 50/barrel for the next two years. In the first six months of 2016, production at Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG), Azerbaijan’s biggest oil producing field, production rose to 16m tonnes, 2% higher than in the same period in 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 295, published on Sept. 9 2016)

Chinese company buys Tajik fertiliser plant

SEPT. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tajik government sold a 50% stake in Tajik Azot, a fertiliser producer, to China’s Henan Zhong Holding, a chemical company. Under the deal, the Chinese company pledged to invest $360m to modernise and operate the plant, giving Tajikistan’s economy a boost. In 2014, the government seized Tajik Azot, previously owned by Ukrainian businessman Dmitro Firtash, after Firtash was arrested in Vienna.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 295, published on Sept. 9 2016)

Samsung cancels Kazakh power plant deal

ALMATY, SEPT. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — South Korea’s Samsung pulled out of a $2.5b deal with Kazakhstan to build a coal-fired power plant on the shores of Lake Balkhash in the south of the country because of the low oil prices.

A collapse in oil prices since 2014 has hit Kazakhstan’s finances hard, forcing the government to cancel projects. Although there has been no response from the Kazakh government, the inference from Samsung’s statement is that it was worried that Kazakhstan would not be able to buy as much electricity as they had agreed.

“Samsung C&T exercised the put option regarding all of its Balkhash thermal power plant shares, 50% plus one share,” the company said in a statement. “[This] is a demand for Samruk Energy to acquire all the shares within 60 days from the date of notice for $192.5m.”

Samsung stopped construction work on the power plant 12 months ago after a disagreement with the Kazakh government over the agreed price it would pay for buying electricity from the plant, the first indicator that the deal may be running into serious trouble.

For Kazakhstan, Samsung’s decision to cancel the contract is a blow for two reasons — it is damaging for Kazakhstan’s reputation as a place to do business and also places further pressure on its current Soviet-era energy production system. Demand for electricity has been booming because of rising population and living standards. The Balkhash power plant had been considered essential for maintaining Kazakhstan’s power production.

In January, another South Korean company, LG Chem, dropped its plans to build a $4.2b petrochemical complex in Kazakhstan due to sustained low oil prices.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)

Kazmunaigas to stop takeover efforts on KMG EP

AUG. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — After a failed takeover offer, Kazmunaigas will not make a new offer for its London-traded subsidiary KMG EP, Sauat Mynbayev, managing director of Kazmunaigas said. Kazmunaigas, Kazakhstan’s state-owned energy company owns 63% of KMG EP, its exploration and production subsidiary. In July, Kazmunaigas had offered $9/GDR to KMG EP minority shareholders, but minority shareholders rejected the offer, dealing a blow to the Kazakh energy company’s prestige.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)

Azerbaijan halts currency trades

SEPT. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Banks in Azerbaijan’s capital have stopped selling foreign currency as demand soared after the Azerbaijani manat started to depreciate, triggering memories of the currency’s double devaluation last year.

The news will be disappointing to Central Banks across the Central Asia and South Caucasus region who had hoped to have moved away from the currency crises of 2014 and 2015.

According to sources in Baku, the manat traded at 1.68/$1, 5% lower than last month. They said that many Azerbaijanis now fear that another crisis is around the corner and have tried to hoard foreign currency. Bloomberg reported that 15 banks in Baku and the city’s international airport had stopped selling US dollars, a sign that demand had surpassed availability.

Azerbaijan’s economy is particularly vulnerable to the vagaries of oil prices, which have collapsed since 2014, and it is set to shrink this year for the first time since the mid-1990s.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)

Azerbaijan’s oil shipments to Russia fall

SEPT. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company SOCAR shipped 729,000 tonnes of oil through Russia’s pipeline network in Jan.-Aug. 2016, a 22% fall compared to the same period last year. The fall is mostly due to a halt in shipments via the Baku-Novorossyisk pipeline in the Jan.-Feb. 2016, while the countries were negotiating a new deal. Monthly shipments are now back at the same levels as last year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)

ADB approves loan to Kazakhstan

SEPT. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $240m loan to help Kazakhstan improve a 185-km highway around its northern Caspian Sea shore to Russia. The road is important to link Kazakhstan to Russia and the South Caucasus via land, giving it further access to European markets. The ADB said the road improvements will open up new trade and investment opportunities.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)