JUNE 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Cargolux, one of Europe’s largest air freight carriers, started flights to Turkmenbashi on Turkmenistan’s Caspian Sea coast, the company said. Cargolux said it would fly four times a week to Turkmenbashi. Turkmenbashi can be used as a hub for Central Asia’s Caspian Sea region.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JUNE 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazmunaigaz, Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil and gas company, said it would sell half its stake in the Caspian Sea Kashagan oil field to Samruk-Kazyna, the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund.
This is a curious arrangement as Samruk-Kazyna actually owns Kazmunaigas. It may be a way for Kazmunaigas, which has been badly hit by the sharp drop in energy prices, to borrow cash cheaply.
According to a press release from the London Stock Exchange, Kazmunaigas is seeking the consent of the shareholders in the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) , the consortium which operates the Kashagan, to sell half of its 16.88% share to Samruk-Kazyna for approximately $4.7b.
“Samruk-Kazyna’s agreement to purchase the Kashagan Shares reflects the State’s strong support of KMG (Kazmunaigas), as a strategic national asset,” the statement said.
Part of the cash raised by the sale would be used to pay $2.2b Kazmunaigas owes in fees relating to its 2013 purchase of the Kashagan stake from US company ConocoPhillips.
Kazmunaigas said that the sale would come with an option to buy back the stake in Kashagan for the same price between 2016 and 2020.
NCOC declined to comment.
Kazmaunaigas had run up large debts, partly because of the oil price slump. Halyk Bank analyst Sabina Amangeldi said in a note last month that the company already has seven Eurobond issues outstanding worth a total of $8.8b.
She also noted that lower oil prices had knocked Kazmunaigas’ revenues by around a third and that profit had been wiped out.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – YEREVAN — Several hundred protesters continued to occupy a main street in central Yerevan, demonstrating against an electricity price increase.
The number of demonstrators has fallen and a Bulletin correspondent said there were now no more than about 1,000 people protesting on July 2, a drop from an estimated 10,000 protesters last week.
But the stand-off with riot police is still one of the most widely supported street demonstrations in Armenia for years.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, also warned the West against interfering, a sign of the Kremlin’s concern.
The protesters, who are mainly young, have defied police warnings to quit and the atmosphere has veered from tense to party-like over the past week. Last week police used water cannons and detained over 200 protesters when they tried to clear the square.
In a bid to appease the protesters, Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan suggested inves- tigating further a request by the Russia-owned electricity monopoly to find out just why the price increases are needed.
“I strongly believe that cancelling the tariff increase is extremely dangerous. Hence, until the given company pro- vides its opinion, the govern- ment will incur the entire burden of the tariff increase,” Mr Sargsyan said.
Most activists, though, dismissed Mr Sargsyan’s offer as a distraction.
“Increasing electricity tariffs will increase nearly all prices. Bread, butter, oil,” one activist at the protest said.
The electricity price rise is the third in two years.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI — Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov travelled to Tbilisi for the first time in his eight-year presidency, part of a high-profile charm offensive aimed at winning support for pumping Turkmen gas to Europe across the South Caucasus.
Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili welcomed Mr Berdymukhamedov at the Presidential Palace overlooking Tbilisi with red carpet and a guard of honour.
“Energy is one of the issues on which we cooperate closely. A Transit route from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey has a huge potential,” Georgian media quoted Mr Berdymukhamedov as saying after the meeting. said.
Mr Margvelashvili agreed.
“Our joint transit and energy projects will make it possible to transit Turkmen energy resources to the European markets,” he said.
This year momentum has built for Turkmenistan to start sending its gas to Europe across the south Caucasus. The European Union has visited Ashgabat several times to secure promises of gas supplies from Turkmenistan and Turkmen officials have set up working groups with their Azerbaijani, Georgian and Turkish counterparts on how best to pump gas to Europe.
Europe wants to reduce its dependence on Russia for energy supplies and Turkmenistan wants to widen its client base. Currently most of its gas flows east to China.
By travelling to Tbilisi for the first time since he became Turkmen president in 2007, Mr Berdymukhamedov has sent out a strong signal of his intent.
Luca Anceschi, a professor of Central Asian Studies at Glasgow University explained.
“This meeting, marking Berdymukhamedov’s first official visit to Georgia, is an important display of Turkmenistan’s policy of maintaining an open dialogue with as many potential partners as possible,” he said.
And Georgia is important because it lies on the pipeline transit route from Azerbaijan to Turkey and then into Europe. Mr Berdymukhamedov, as he clearly has acknowledged, needs Georgian support to push gas through to Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Commercial banks in Kyrgyzstan’s need to meet a minimum capitalisation level, the Central Bank said, part of an ongoing process to professionalise the banking sector and protect it against another Global Financial Crisis. By 2017, commercial banks in Kyrgyzstan will need a working capital of nearly $10m.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s oil and gas ministry said it wants to increase the amount of processed oil and gas products it exports. Turkmenistan has been trying to increase exports of both raw natural gas and processed products.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazmunaigas, the Kazakh state oil and gas company, is trying for a third time to sell off three companies it owns in Romania, media reported quoting the Kazakh finance ministry. Kazmunaigas wants to sell Rominserv Valves, a valve manufacturer, SA Palplast, a plastic pipe maker and Global Security Systems which provides security guards. All three are currently owned by Rompetrol, a Kazmunaigas subsidiary.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JUNE 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Hualing Group, a Chinese investment company, bought a building in central Tbilisi previously used as the ministry of economy for $9.5m. Hualing Group is committed to turning the building into a 100-room hotel by 2018.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a meeting in Ashgabat, Japan’s economy minister Daishiro Yamagiwa said he wanted to improve relations with Turkmenistan. This is significant because it highlights Turkmenistan’s growing status as a trade partner for countries across Asia and not just for its gas clients.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Central Bank said the percentage of non-performing loans held by banks had fallen from a peak of 33% to 13% because of a combination of tax breaks and state financing. It’s unclear exactly how these measures helped to reduce non-performing loans.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)