JAN. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — London-listed and Tajikistan-focused China Nonferrous Gold ltd said it produced its first gold from the Pakrut mine. Tajikistan had granted the company a licence to explore the Pakrut mine in 2004.
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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)
ALMATY, JAN. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian energy company Lukoil said Western sanctions have damaged its ability to carry out exploration work in the Kazakh section of the Caspian Sea, just as Kazakhstan’s government said it wanted to intensify the search for oil and gas.
Amid an ongoing economic downturn, Kazakhstan’s state-owned energy company Kazmunaigas is looking to boost revenues through new oil and gas projects. In the northern section of the Caspian Sea, Russia’s Rosneft and Lukoil are its main partners.
But Lukoil said Western sanctions had hit its operations.
“We don’t have free available drilling rigs and we cannot import them because of Western sanctions,” Vagit Alekperov, Lukoil’s CEO told Russia-24 in an interview.
Kazakh-Russian consortia explored several fields for oil and gas in the early 2000s but failed to make any major discoveries. Although there were some promising indications that fields held decent reserves, most of the projects were suspended as costs mounted.
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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)
DEC. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A UN court dismissed a $400m claim by British mining company Oxus Gold against Uzbekistan after the Uzbek government took control of its stake in a gold mine in 2011, a blow to the company’s ambition of recovering cash from its former asset.
The UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) instead awarded $10.2m in damages to Oxus for what it said was a breach of a UK-Uzbekistan Bilateral Investment Treaty on tax issues.
Oxus chairman Richard Shead said that he was disappointed that the UN court had failed to uphold its claim of $400 for what he described as the expropriation of its assets at the Amantaytau Gold Fields (AGF) and the Khandiza deposits.
“I’m devastated by the decision of the arbitration award in relation to Oxus Gold and will continue to work with the company’s lawyers to extract as much value as possible for shareholders of the company,” Mr Shead said.
The UN court has not made clear why it turned down Oxus Gold’s application for damages. Uzbekistan has not commented.
Ozux had owned a 50% stake in the Amantaytau Goldfields JV in the Kyzylkum desert. It lost control of this stake in 2011 after the government ran an audit of the mine and accused Oxus of environmental damage, failing to pay enough tax and not meeting its investment obligations.
Eric McGlinchey, professor at George Mason University who focuses on litigation of Central Asian property, said that Oxus may turn to another court to look for another, more favourable, verdict.
“The $10m the tribunal awarded for Uzbekistan’s violation of fair treatment standards may allow Oxus to tread water a little longer in the hope of receiving a more favourable verdict from a different court,” Mr McGlinchey told The Bulletin.
Western firms have been disparaging of the investment climate in Uzbekistan and will be dismayed by the UN court’s decision against Oxus.
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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)
DEC. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s parliament ratified a deal to take a $1b loan from the Asian Development Bank to plug a gap in the government’s finances. The deal was agreed in November. The sharp fall in oil prices has hit Kazakhstan’s economy hard shrinking growth rates and government revenues.
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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)
DEC. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kenes Rakishev, son-in-law of Kazakh defence minister Imangali Tasmagambetov, became the majority shareholder in Kazakhstan’s largest bank, Kazkommertsbank, after he completed his purchase of investment group Alnair Capital Holding, media reported. Mr Rakishev will now own, directly and through Alnair, 56.75% of Kazkommertsbank. Alnair had been linked to the Kazakh elite.
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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)
JAN. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan will begin construction work on a new gas pipeline running to China in March, media reported quoting Deputy Economy Minister Aibek Kaliev. The pipeline, which will take several years to build, will complete a route running from gas fields in east Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and on to Kyrgyzstan and China.
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
DEC. 15 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s government wants Russian tourists now blocked from travelling to Turkey for a week or two in the sun to head to Lake Issyk-Kul instead.
Media quoted Mikhail Kim, deputy director of Kyrgyzstan tourism department, as saying that he expects an influx of Russians after Russia blocked tourists from travelling to Turkey in retaliation for a Turkish warplane shooting down a Russian warplane. He also said he had written to Russia’s tourism officials to encourage them to send people to Issyk-Kul and other Kyrgyz resorts.
“It is like in the USSR, when workers from all over the Soviet Union were coming to Kyrgyzstan for vacations,” he said.
Industry insiders, though, told the Bulletin that although there has been an increase in the number of Russians holidaying in Issyk-Kul to around 60,000 per year, they doubt there would be a deluge next summer.
The head of a local tour agency who preferred to remain anonymous told the Bulletin: “For the last 1-1⁄2 years, we have seen a gradual increase of Russian tourists coming to Kyrgyzstan, and we want to have more of them coming.”
During the Soviet Union, Issyk Kul used to be regarded as a top holidaying spots. It dropped back in popularity with the onset of cheap flights to Turkey and Europe, though.
Emil Umetaliev, head of the Kyrgyz Concept tour agency, said there would not be boost in tourism.
“We have high prices, bad service and long way from Russia,” he said told local media. Russia will prioritise their own resorts like Crimea, he added.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The lower house of Tajikistan’s parliament ratified a $145m investment deal to boost cement production in the country. Under the agreement, a Tajik-Chinese joint venture will build three new facilities, including a cement plant with a capacity of 1.2m tonnes in the Yovon district, 40km south of Dushanbe. Three unnamed Chinese businessmen will own 75% of the joint venture and the Tajik government will retain the remaining 25%.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – KazTransGas, Kazakhstan’s gas distributor, named Rustam Suleymanov as its new CEO. Mr Suleymanov has worked at KazTransGas for 15 years. Former CEO Kairat Sharipbayev was named chairman of the board.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian government said the development of the Gudauri ski area will cost around $150m to build, the first time that a price tag has been put on plans to give the country what officials say will be a world-class winter sports resort. Canadian mountain resort developers Ecosign and consulting firm Ernst&Young have drawn up plans to develop infrastructure at Gudauri, a ski resort around 120km north of Tbilisi. The government’s Partnership Fund is set to be one of the biggest investors in the project.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)