Tag Archives: business

Azerbaijan needs a transparency compliance check

OCT. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a sort of best-practise benchmark for countries heavily involved in mining or oil production, told Azerbaijan that it needs to undergo a compliance check five months earlier than planned.

EITI chief Clare Short, a former British minister, said that concerns over Azerbaijan’s recent crackdown on civil society had triggered the compliance check.

“The situation facing civil society in Azerbaijan is clearly problematic,” Ms Short wrote in a statement.

“The Board discussed the findings of the fact finding mission and expressed deep concern. The Board hopes that Azerbaijan will open up more space for civil society to make its essential contribution to the EITI as laid down in our Standard.”

International pressure has been increasing on Azerbaijan over its treatment of opposition activists and human rights defenders. The EITI’s statement will be particularly irritating to Azerbaijan, though, as it has previously touted its links to EITI as evidence of its good intentions.

Being ordered to undergo a compliance check before 2015 will be publicly humiliating.

And there is some evidence that the pressure on Azerbaijan is beginning to tell. On Oct. 17, President Ilham Aliyev released four opposition activists as part of a wider amnesty.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Kyrgyzstan threatens gold miners

OCT. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan and its Canadian mining partners once again clashed over ownership of the Kumtor gold mine in the mountains on the east of the country.

Kumtor is the main economic engine of Kyrgyzstan, generating around 10% of its GDP. The problem is Kyrgyzstan wants to own more of the mine which is mainly owned by Totonto-listed Centerra Gold.

Now, Kyrgyzstan president Almazbek Atambayev has threatened to force Centerra Gold to delist from the Toronto stock exchange after a court in Canada suspended its shares.

Kyrgyzstan owns a third of the company but Stans Energy, a Canadian company, has taken out a court injunction preventing Kyrgyzstan from trading its stake. Stans Energy says it is looking for payment from the Kyrgyz government after losing its licence to develop the Kutessay II rare earth mine.

The row between Kyrgyzstan and its foreign investors has been rumbling along for years. It shows no sign of slowing.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Turkmen President wants TAPI work to begin

OCT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov once again said he wanted work to begin on building a gas pipeline running across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India by 2015, media reported. The so-called TAPI pipeline is a major project designed to feed gas to India and Pakistan and give economic security to Afghanistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Turkmen increases energy ambitions

OCT. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan said it wants to increase its client base for gas supplies, media reported. Turkmenistan’s president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said he had instructed officials to seek out more clients. Turkmenistan has transformed itself from recluse to major energy hub over the past decade.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Kyrgyzstan to boost walnut cultivation

OCT 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan plans to increase the size of its walnut forests to meet rising demand for the nut from consumers in Iran, China, Turkey and south-east Asia, media reported. Kyrgyzstan has very few exports and a boost in walnut sales would give the economy a lift.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

Statoil sells Azerbaijani Shah Deniz stake

OCT. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Norwegian energy company Statoil sold its final 15.5% stake in the Shah Deniz oil field in the Azerbaijani Caspian Sea to Malaysia’s Petronas for $2.25b.

Officially, Statoil said the sale was part of a worldwide reorganisation. For the partners in Shah Deniz, though, the sale represents yet another major shake-up of one of Azerbaijan’s biggest energy projects.

The sale is also another indicator that Western energy companies are looking to reign in investments that require large capital commitments.

In May, Statoil sold a 10% stake in Shah Deniz to BP and SOCAR and French energy company Total sold its 10% stake in the project to TPAO. For its part, Petronas has been looking to diversify its energy assets across the world.

The other shareholders in Shah Deniz are: BP (28.8% of the project); Turkey’s TPAO (19%); Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR (16.7%); Russia’s Lukoil (10%) and National Iranian Oil Company (10%).

Clearly the diverse nature of Shah Deniz’s stakeholders makes it a complex project. Azerbaijan is also staking much of its future riches on the success of the project and Europe is hoping to pump around a fifth of its gas from Shah Deniz over the next few years.

Statoil’s deal with Petronas also included selling its stakes in the South Caucasus pipeline. It kept, though, its 8.56% stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil field and also its 20% stake in the TAP pipeline that will pump gas from Azerbaijan to Europe.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)

Tesco ditches Uzbek cotton

OCT. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tesco, the world’s second largest retailer, has signed up to an agreement not to buy cotton from Uzbekistan because of concerns over its use of child labour to pick it, media reported.

The timing will particularly hurt Uzbekistan as Tesco’s move comes on the eve of the annual Uzbekistan cotton trade show on Oct. 14. This set piece event is supposed to showcase Uzbek cotton — one of the country’s biggest exports.

The problem for Uzbekistan is that its use of deploying school children, teachers and doctors to harvest the cotton has made buying it taboo.

“Markets for Uzbek cotton sourced with forced labour continue to diminish as consumers become more aware of the egregious human rights violations that occur during the Uzbek cotton harvest, with over 4m Uzbek citizens forced to pick cotton under threat of penalty,” the advocacy group Responsible Source Network (RSN) said on its website after announcing that Tesco had agreed to support it.

To an extent, RSN is correct. More and more Western retailers are looking to stop buying clothes made with Uzbek cotton. Uzbekistan last year also allowed the United Nation’s International Labour organisation (ILO) to tour the country at harvest season and inspect reports of child labour.

It’s likely, campaigners have said, that child labour is still used in Uzbekistan but this has been reduced over the past few years.

And, there is a flip side. With Western companies trying to stop using Uzbek cotton, Uzbekistan has looked east to potential clients who are less squeamish about human rights. Bangladesh has become a key importer of Uzbek cotton.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)

Kazakh Kashagan pipes to cost $3.6b

OCT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Replacing the pipes running from the Kashagan oil site in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea to the mainland could cost up to $3.6b, Reuters reported quoting an energy ministry document. Kashagan is already the world’s most expensive oil project. Production has been delayed because of leaky gas pipes.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)

Kazakh bank received negative ratings

OCT. 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ratings agency Standard & Poors placed Kazkommertzbank, one of the biggest banks in Kazakhstan, on a negative ratings watch because of its purchase of BTA Bank. BTA Bank was bought from the government in what analysts have said was a political, rather than business, move. BTA Bank owned a large amount of bad debt.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)

Turkmenistan to raise electricity exports to Iran

OCT. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – As well as boosting gas exports to neighbouring Iran, Turkmenistan now wants to increase electricity supplies. Under President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Turkmenistan has become a major energy exporter across the Middle East. Earlier this year it agreed to boost gas supplies to Iran.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)