DEC. 14 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — China agreed to invest $3.8b into developing Kazakhstan’s potash deposits to produce a mineral that can be used in fertiliser production. The massive investment both underscores China’s interest in Kazakhstan and will also help Kazakhstan diversify its economy away from oil and gas.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
DEC. 18 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — In an interview with Reuters, Georgian PM Georgy Margvelashvili said
that the downturn in the Russian economy had hit Georgia’s alcohol and water exports hardest. Russia allowed imports of water and wine from Georgia last year after a ban in 2006.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
DEC. 30 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — Pasha Bank, one of Azerbaijan’s biggest banks, has bought an 80% stake in Turkish bank TAIB for an undisclosed amount, media reported. The move by Pasha Bank shows the ambition of the Azerbaijani baking sector.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
>>Re-starting gas supplies could improve relations>>
DEC. 30 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan has restarted gas supplies to Kyrgyzstan, ending an eight-month embargo.
This is significant as Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan relations had seemingly been drifting from bad to worse over border rows, water management and energy issues. Analysts had identified the cross-border tension as potentially destabilising to the whole region.
Media quoted Tahir Alimov, deputy director in Osh for Gazprom Kyrgyzstan, as saying that the gas started
flowing once again from Uzbekistan at 3am on Dec. 30. The resumption of gas supplies will be a major boon to Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev.
Kyrgyzstan has been negotiating with other countries across Central Asia to make up for the shortfall in Uzbek deliveries but, realistically, Kyrgyz officials were always going to fall short of making up for the lack of Uzbek gas.
Uzbekistan had switched off the gas supply to Kyrgyzstan in April when the current deal expired. Uzbekistan said that Kyrgyzstan didn’t want to negotiate a new deal.
Kyrgyzstan said that Uzbekistan wanted too high a price. At the same time Russia’s Gazprom completed a deal to buy Kyrgyzstan’s gas company and it seems that it, and not the Kyrgyz government, was able to negotiate a new deal.
Kyrgyz news agency 24.kg said that Uzbekistan and a Switzerland-based Gazprom-owned company had renegotiated the deal.
Perhaps, Gazprom has acted as a peace-maker.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
JAN. 5 2015, (The Conway Bulletin) — Air Armenia, which suspended its international flights in October after declaring itself bankrupt, will re-start operations in March after agreeing a deal to sell 49% of the company to a Ukrainian company called East Prospect Fund, media reported. The news is important for Armenia’s travel links to Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
JAN. 6 2015, (The Conway Bulletin) — A Sheraton hotel, owned by the Starwood Hotels & Resorts brand, has opened in Dushanbe, media reported. Dushanbe is undergoing something of a hotel boom in recent years with several major chains opening in the Tajik capital.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
DEC. 26 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — Chinese energy company CNPC said it wanted to develop new gas fields in Uzbekistan. It wants to invest $277m in three fields — Dengizkul, Khojadavlat and East Alat — over the next five years. The announcement helps to secure China’s place as Central Asia’s biggest gas client.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
JAN. 4 2015, (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan may have serious problems making its national budget work with oil prices dropping below $50/barrel, media reported (Jan. 4). The government’s budget estimates are calculated at oil costing $90/barrel. Oil revenues directly contribute over half the government’s revenue.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
DEC. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Bank of Georgia, which is listed on the London stock exchange and is the largest bank in the country, said it wanted to buy the Georgian subsidiary of Ukraine’s PrivatBank. PrivatBank is Ukraine’s largest bank. Bank of Georgia said that it had agreed a preliminary deal to buy the bank for $51m.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The consortium developing the Karachaganak oil and gas site (KPO) in west Kazakhstan denied that a gas leak at its plant poisoned 20 children and three teachers at a school in a nearby village.
Ambulances rushed the children and teachers to hospital after they suddenly fainted on Nov. 28.
KPO made the statement after Kazakh media widely quoted the Prosecutor-General for Kazakhstan’s western region, Serik Karamanov, saying that there had been a brief gas leak the day before the mass fainting at the Karachaganak site only a few kilometres away from the village.
The KPO statement said: “A mobile environmental monitoring station has also been despatched to Berezovka village and has reported no exceedances above the official Maximum Permissible Concentration limits.”
Whether the Kazakh authorities agree, remains to be seen.
Mr Karamanov was clear about what he thought may have been the cause of the poisoning.
“It has been established that at 14:19 on November 27 at the gas-processing complex of KPO, there occurred a discharge of condensate for a period of two minutes,” he said according to local media reports.
The incident is a reminder of the tension at local levels between the foreign-led projects in the energy sector and local communities who accuse them of not doing enough to protect their environment.
Karachaganak is important to Kazakhstan. It is considered one of the country’s most successful projects, and produces around 40% of Kazakhstan’s gas and 13% of its oil. Britain’s BG Group and Italy’s ENI own a 29.5% stake each, Chevron owns 18%, Russia’s Lukoil owns 13.5% and the Kazakh state oil and gas company, KazMunaiGas owns 10%.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)