NOV. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has placed an order for 1,500 trucks with Russian manufacturer Kamaz, Russian news agency ITAR-Tass reported. The deal, worth a reported $125m, is a major coup for Kamaz and also underlines other Turkmenistan’s drive to build new infrastructure.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Italian energy major ENI has started to hand out the first contracts to build a shipyard at Kuryk on Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea coast. The shipyard is designed to increase ship building capacity and generate jobs. It was announced as a joint-venture with KazMunaiGaz last year, when the Kazakh economy looked stronger.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan will lose $65m in revenue this year because of a delay in restructuring the Kumtor gold mining project, the country’s biggest industrial operation, media quoted Eldar Tadzhibayev, head of the Kyrgyz mining union, as saying. Kumtor has been the focus of a major row between Kyrgyzstan and its Canadian partners.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An oil rig partially collapsed in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, killing at least one worker. This was the second fatal accident on Azerbaijan’s off-shore energy sector in less than a month, throwing up general safety concerns.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Yerevan, US software company Microsoft praised Armenia’s drive to boost its tech sector. Mark Day, a senior official at Microsoft, described Armenia’s tech sector as reaching a “world level”. Armenia has highlighted technology as an area it can attract foreign investment.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan signed a deal with Turkey to provide gas for a new pipeline running from the Caspian Sea to Europe.
The deal means that Europe will take delivery of Turkmen gas directly, part of a major proposed new gas route that will avoid using Russian infrastructure.
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan singed the deal with his Turkmen counterpart Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov during a visit to Ashgabat.
“We attach great significance to deliveries of Turkmenistan’s natural gas to Europe via Turkey,” media quoted him as saying.
“Europe’s energy security is important for us.”
Over the past few years, Turkmenistan has boosted its exports of gas dramatically. China is its main client but it has also sorted out alternatives. Joining the so-called TANAP pipeline is a major boon for Mr Berdymukhamedov as well as for Europe.
The TANAP programme will pump gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz 2, which is under construction, to Central Europe by 2019 although it was always envisaged that other countries would also use the pipeline.
Turkmenistan has previously expressed some interest in sending its gas to Europe but had not unveiled any specific plans. Now that a deal with Turkey has been struck, it seems that Turkmenistan is committed to sending its gas to Europe.
Importantly, though, neither Mr Erdogan nor Mr Berdymukhamedov revealed any of the details of the deal.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan will donate $100m to Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev said during a trip to Astana to sign a new electricity supply deal. Mr Atambayev described the aid to Kyrgyzstan as can act of fraternal support from Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Through its subsidiary Super iMAX, Korea Telecom will launch a 4G technology in Uzbekistan in 2015, media reported. South Korea is one of the biggest investors in Uzbekistan. The 4G service will be available in Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Replacing leaky pipes at the Kashagan oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea will cost around $3b, Reuters reported quoting a senior Kazakh official. Kashagan was to be the project that propelled Kazakhstan into the top tier of global energy suppliers instead it has run hugely over budget and time.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Aiming to give tourism a lift, Armenia said it would join the EU-funded Black Sea Silk Road Corridor which already includes Georgia, Turkey and Greece. The focus of the corridor is a 3,000km path that weaves through 150 cultural sites. Armenia’s government has earmarked tourism as a way of boosting the economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)