Tag Archives: business

Stock market: Tethys Petroleum, Roxi Petroleum

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil prices fell by 2.3% to $43/barrel of Brent crude this week.

Tethys Petroleum shares jumped 15% in one day on Dec. 2 to 4.88p, but fell later in the week to close at 4.50p on Friday, a 5.9% increase over the last week.

Roxi Petroleum shares fell sharply to 7p on Friday, down 10% from last week.

Gold prices rose by 2.7% this week to $1,086/ounce, which, together with positive industrial news, propped up the region’s principal gold miners.

Kyrgyzstan-focused miner Centerra Gold gained around 6% this week on the Toronto Stock Exchange, closing at 7.61 Canadian dollars on Friday.

After announcing a new financing deal for its gold deposit in Armenia, Toronto-listed gold miner Lydian International shares gained 30% in just two days. Lydian share price then fell back to 0.27 Canadian dollars on Friday.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Austrian airlines quits Azerbaijan

DEC. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Austrian Airlines, Austria’s flag carrier and full-owned subsidiary of German Lufthansa, will stop flying to Azerbaijan from January 2016 because of low demand. With the termination of the Austrian Airlines route, there will be no more direct flights from Austria to Azerbaijan. Austrian Airlines told the Trend news agency it may consider resuming the air link in the future.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Azerbaijan’s ACG production drops

NOV. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP, the British operator of Azerbaijan’s largest oilfield, Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG), said in a statement that production in the first three-quarters of 2015 showed a decline of 2.4% compared to last year. ACG’s oil production is vital for the Azerbaijani economy. In the first nine months of this year, ACG averaged 640,000 barrels/day, against 655,700 barrels/day last year. Maintenance work in Q3 2015 slowed production.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Van Oord signs Kazakhstan contracts

DEC. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dutch marine engineering company Van Oord said it signed several contracts with Kazakhstan for a total value of $500m. Van Oord representatives accompanied the Dutch PM Mark Rutte during his official visit to Astana. One of the main projects will be to expand the port in the town of Prorva on the Caspian Sea coast near Atyrau in north-west Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Arianespace sends Azerbaijan’s satellite

DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Arianespace, the French launch service provider, will send Azerbaijan’s second satellite into space from its launch site in French Guiana, Elmir Velizade, deputy minister of communications, said at a press conference. The national space agency Azercosmos launched its first satellite with Arianespace in 2013. The new Azerspace-2/Intelsat 38 satellite will be put into orbit in 2017.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Georgia completes railway

DEC. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia has completed its 178km section of the revamped Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway that links the Caspian Sea with the Turkish border, media reported. Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey agreed to upgrade the railway line 10 years ago to boost trade. The upgrade work has been delayed and has overrun its budget.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Kazakhstan’s DevBank and Al Hilal sign agreement

DEC. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The state-owned Kazakhstan Development Bank and Abu Dhabi-based lender Al Hilal signed an agreement on the development of Ijara, an Islamic banking financial instrument linked to leasing real estate. Earlier this week Kazakhstan’s Central Bank also said it is considering halving capital requirements for Islamic banks to 5b tenge ($16.2m).

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Azerbaijani company wants partners for Greek distributor deal

DEC. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s energy company, has to sell a 17% stake in the Greek gas distributor DESFA by the end of June 2016 to comply with EU ownership regulations, media quoted the Greek authorities as saying.SOCAR bought a 66% stake in DESFA in 2013 although the European Commission later said that under 2009 rules it had to bring its stake in DESFA down to 49%. Belgium’s Fluxys and Spain’s Enagas have submitted a joint offer for the stake. Italy’s Snam has also said it would be interested in buying it.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Lydian secures funds to develop Armenian gold mine

DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Toronto-listed miner Lydian International said it had reached a $325m financing agreement to develop a gold mine in Armenia, an initiative that will boost the country’s gold output.

In a detailed statement, the company said it will receive a line of funding from US-based investment firms Orion Mine Finance and Resource Capital Funds. The money will be used to start construction at the Amulsar gold project in south- central Armenia.

Once preparation work is completed next year according to the company, Lydian forecasts a production rate of around 6 tonnes of gold per year from the Amulsar project. For a comparison, Armenia produced 3.5 tonnes of gold in 2013.

Lydian has been working on financing the project since 2006.

A fall in gold prices, down around 13% year-on-year on Dec. 1 at $1,069/ounce – a 5-year low, has put pressure on mining companies with operations in the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

Lydian’s CEO Howard Stevenson said the agreement with Orion and RCF was a major step forward, especially considering the current financial markets.

“The Financing provides over 75% of the overall financing requirement, which is a strong achievement in the current financial market,” Mr Stevenson said in a company statement

Armenian PM Hovik Abrahamyan also said the government was pleased Lydian had won backing for the project.

“The financing of the construction of the Amulsar Mine represents a significant step forward in the development of the mining industry in Armenia,” Mr Abrahamyan said in a statement.

Gold is an important cash earner for the Armenian government but although potentially lucrative for the state, the project has angered people who worry about the environmental degradation. In 2014, police dispersed a large crowd of protesters around the mine.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Pegasus flies to Turkmenistan

DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) –Turkey’s low-cost airline Pegasus will open a new Istanbul-Turkmenbashi route, according to Turkmenistan’s official press service. Pegasus would become the first international airline to fly to Turkmenbashi, a port city on the Caspian Sea. The nearby Awaza resort should benefit from this new route.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)