FEB. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz government said it was once again putting its second largest gold mine, Jerooy, up for sale by tender despite a failed attempt to sell it in 2013 for $300m. The Jerooy mine is also the subject of a $549m arbitration suit filed by its former owners, the Kazakh investment fund Visor Holdings.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan increased gold production in 2014 by 4.1% to 102 tonnes, media reported quoting the US Geological Survey. Gold is an important source of foreign cash for the Uzbek government. Uzbekistan is now the seventh largest gold producer in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015
FEB. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A car plant factory in Uzbekistan has started producing parts for cars in Brazil, media reported. UzSungwoo is an Uzbek-Korean joint venture. It was set up to produce parts for GM’s plant in Uzbekistan. Demand has dropped at the GM plant because of an economic crisis, possibly triggering UzSungwoo to sell to Brazil.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan intends to increase production of gas in 2015 to around 80b cubic metres compared to 76b cubic metres in 2014, media reported quoting its energy ministry.
This is important because it underlines Turkmenistan’s determination to sell more gas to make up for the drop in prices.
Over the last few years Turkmenistan has built up its client base for gas and shifted itself into position as one of the region’s major gas suppliers.
Its main client is China but Europe, India and Pakistan are also clamouring to receive more gas.
News that Turkmen President Kurbangkuly Berdymukhamdov wants to increase gas production this year will be a boost for the proposed TAPI pipeline that is planned to run from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India and also for a potential pipeline to run under the Caspian Sea that will feed gas to Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bucking expectations BP said output from its Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil field in Azerbaijan continued to fall in 2014. BP said oil output at ACG, which is essential to Azerbaijan’s overall output, fell to 31.5m tonnes in 2014 from 32.3m tonnes in 2013.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
>>Slump in global oil prices triggers tax cut>>
FEB. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will slash its oil export duty by 25% to help companies manage a sharp drop in energy prices, economy minister Yerbolat Dossayev said.
The measure is part of a package of proposals designed to help Kazakhstan’s economy weather an increasingly nasty economic downturn. Energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik also said that taxes on miners would be cut soon.
Currently oil exporters pay $80 to ship a tonne of oil out of Kazakhstan. The government will cut this to $60.
It’s a drastic step for Kazakhstan which still relies heavily on oil exports for its revenue. Drastic but, possibly, unavoidable. Oil prices have halved in the past seven months, forcing spending cut backs and budget cuts.
The sharp drop in oil prices also creates another problem for Kazakhstan. It makes the more expensive projects, such as the Kashagan project in the Caspian Sea, unprofitable. Dropping export tax may go some way to addressing this problem.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
FEB. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian energy company LukOil said that along with a consortium headed by South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering it had won a contract to build a gas processing plant in the Kandym region of south Uzbekistan. LukOil did not say how much the project would cost but it did say that it was its largest investment in Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
FEB. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s president Emomali Rakhmon sacked the managing-director at TALCO, the company that runs its aluminium smelter, media reported. No official reason was given for sacking Sadriddin Sharipov from TALCO which generates around 70% of Tajikistan’s foreign earnings.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
FEB. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tengizchevroil, a Kazakh joint-venture with Chevron, is expected to boost oil output by 42% to 38m tonnes by 2021, Kazakh energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik said. This is important news for Kazakhstan as Tengizchevroil is its biggest single oil producer.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
>>Criticism comes after Russia cuts Turkmen gas imports>>
FEB. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan has criticised Russia as an unreliable gas partner, hinting that it was moving away from its traditional energy alliance with Moscow and was instead looking for new clients and markets.
Ties between Turkmenistan and Russia have been increasingly strained and, perhaps, the Kremlin’s shadow boxing with the West in eastern Ukraine persuaded it to issue the harshly worded statement and speed up its search for new clients.
“Gazprom and its affiliates periodically violate agreements at interstate, intergovernmental and interdepartmental level, leading to the view that unfortunately the major energy company is an unstable partner,” the AFP news agency reported quoting an article on the website of Turkmenistan’s oil and gas ministry.
Earlier this year, Gazprom said that it was cutting imports of gas from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan by up to two-thirds.
Like other countries in the region, Turkmenistan has been trying to deal with the fallout from the decline in the value of the rouble and also the fall in energy prices. President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has ordered his energy executives to search for more clients.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)