Tag Archives: business

Gas flow restarts on Azerbaijani pipeline

SEPT. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gas flows along the Baku-Tbilisi-Er- zurum pipeline have resumed after a second attack by Kurdish rebels, the head of BP-Azerbaijan’s press service Tamam Bayatli told Azerbaijani media.

Kurdish rebels have twice attacked a section of the pipeline in Turkey over the past month. On each occasion, BP said gas flows had barely been impacted as the pipeline had either been empty or running at reduced capacity for maintenance.

The PKK group has claimed responsibility for the two attacks and said that it will mount more despite a pledged by the Turkish security forces to strengthen security.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline, sometimes referred to as the South Caucasus pipeline, is an important part of the network pumping gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe. Its main feeder is Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz project which is being enlarged to produce more gas for Europe.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Kazakhstan’s Kazkom posts $231m loss

AUG. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazkommertsbank, one of the largest banks in Kazakhstan, posted a net loss of almost 55b tenge ($231m) in the first half of 2015, due to costs associated with bad loans inherited from the takeover of troubled BTA bank.

Kazkommertsbank had to sell assets to guarantee provisions for its non-performing loans (NPL) portfolio, which increased after the takeover of BTA earlier this year. Analysts said at the time of the merger that political, rather than business, reasons had driven the Kazkommertsbank’s takeover of BTA Bank.

The latest earnings results follow a 55% fall in net profit in 2014, a drop also associated with the takeover of BTA Bank. Sabina Amangeldi, senior analyst at Halyk Finance, said that the high non-performing loan (NPL) ratio in Kazkommertsbank’s portfolio would continue to weigh on its earnings potential.

“NPL share and cost of risk, remain high and earnings quality is still low,” she wrote in a note.

NPLs now account for 14.5% of Kazkommertsbank’s loan portfolio.

Ms Amangeldi also highlighted the weak tenge as a potential problem for Kazkommertsbank, an issue that the bank also pointed out.

Kazkommertsbank said the impact of the Central Bank’s decision at the end of last month to remove the tenge from its US dollar peg was still unclear.

“At the present time it is impossible to determine the impact of [the new monetary policy] on the Kazakhstan economy and the banking system,” it said.

The value of the tenge collapsed by 23% after the dollar peg was withdrawn in August, the second major devaluation in the value of the Kazakh currency since Feb. 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

China and Kazakhstan sign railway deals

SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Askar Mamin, head of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the state-owned railway company, and Li Xueyong, the governor of the Jiangsu province in China’s far east, signed a series of documents that included an extra $600m investment in the development of the Khorgos special economic zone on the China-Kazakhstan border. Kazakhstan and China are spending billions on developing Khorgos, although a corruption scandal has slowed progress on the Kazakh side.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Petrol price controls cut in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh government said that it was abandoning price controls on petrol. Heavy fluctuations in currency and oil prices have put these price controls under pressure.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Uzbekistan prepares cotton

SEPT. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan is gearing up for its cotton harvest season by preparing the forced mobilisation of hundreds of students, teacher and medical staff, media reported. Cotton is a lucrative export for Uzbekistan. It has previously drawn international condemnation for using children to pick cotton.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Turkmenistan imposes restrictions on car imports

AUG. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – According to reports from Turkmenistan the government has banned the import of cars with engines below 1,300cc. Since 2010, Turkmenistan has banned the import of cars with engines above 3,500cc.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Kyrgyzstan opens new power transit line

AUG. 28 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan inaugurated a 450km-long electricity line that the government said would secure an independent power supply.

Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev called it a “historic event,” as it would release Kyrgyzstan from depending on neighbouring countries for the transit of its own power.

“Everyone knows that electricity from the Toktogul dam was transmitted through Uzbekistan. We have paid millions of US dollars for that,” President Atambayev said.

The Datka-Kemin power line links the south of the country to the north, avoiding Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

The old Soviet-era power grid forced Kyrgyz-generated power in the south to enter the territory of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan before re-entering Kyrgyzstan. This added costs of around $9m, according to the latest estimates, without accounting for the loss of electricity from covering the extra distance.

“Thanks to Datka-Kemin PTL, Kyrgyzstan can annually save around $8-9m,” the Chairman of National Electric Network of Kyrgyzstan Bekbo Mamatbekov said in an interview for 24.kg.

Kyryzstan paid for the power line with a $390 loan from the Import- Export Bank of China. Construction took three years.

Over the past few months, the Kyrgyz government has been forced to increase electricity prices due to a regional economic downturn. The Datka-Kemin power line should reduce utility bills for the population.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Water tax to affect Kazakh soft drinks industry

AUG. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh State Revenue Committee plans to introduce a new tax on the use of underground water, a levy soft drinks manufacturers said will make production unprofitable. The new tax of 1,982 tenge ($8) per cubic metre of extracted water is a 200-fold increase on the previous tax, Aliya Mamytbayeva, director of the Association of Soft Drink Manufacturers, told vlast.kz.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Turkmen leader travels to Kabul

AUG. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov travelled to Kabul to meet with Afghan president Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, an important signifier that he wants to play a greater role in improving his neighbour’s stability. Turkmenistan has developed a handful of high profile projects with Afghanistan, including the TAPI pipeline that will pump gas to India.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 245, published on Aug. 28 2015)

Kazakhstan to host nuclear fuel bank

AUG. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) signed a deal with the Kazakh government to host the first internationally-controlled bank of low-enriched uranium, an agreement that will boost Kazakhstan’s global stature. The idea is that countries can ask to tap into the supply for fuel for their power stations and prevent any unilateral nuclear build up.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 245, published on Aug. 28 2015)