MAY 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) -Georgia has resumed supplying gas to Armenia through its north-south pipeline after a rock fall earlier this month damaged it, Gazprom- Armenia said. The pipeline from Russia through Georgia is the main supply route to Armenia. Rock falls, though, are a problem and can trigger shortages each year.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Following the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) pledged to lend Kazakhstan an extra $2b over the next three years. The deal was signed at the annual Astana Economic Forum.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Underlining Turkmenistan’s growing status, Turkmen foreign minister Rashid Meredov met with his Azerbaijani and Turkish counterparts for what was dubbed as the first of regular tri-lateral talks. Energy featured on the agenda. Over the past 5 years Turkmenistan has become a regional energy super-power.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Saudi Arabia’s Savola Group has sold its food oil business in Kazakhstan to a Russian company for $28.5m, Reuters reported. Savola didn’t name the Russian company. It said that the sale was part of a strategy to divest units that were not making money.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – MTS, the Russian mobile operator, is planning a return to Uzbekistan, two years after it quit the country after a major row with the authorities.
Vladimir Evtushenkov, the Russian billionaire whose company Sistema owns the majority state in MTS, told reporters at the St Petersburg Economic Forum that the company may re-enter Uzbekistan as early as this year.
Given MTS’s acrimonious exit from Uzbekistan, after a row over unpaid tax, Mr Evtushenkov’s statement took people by surprise.
Through its local subsidiary, MTS had been the biggest mobile provider in Uzbekistan. Its abrupt exit in 2012 had cost it 9m subscribers and losses of $1b.
But it’s a positive surprise that MTS is seriously considering a return to Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan is the single biggest market in Central Asia, with a population of 30m, and should be a natural country of operations for a Russian mobile company.
Of course, though, as with everything in Uzbekistan, MTS’s re-entry is possibly layered with extra meaning. It may not be a coincidence that it is considering a return to Uzbekistan just as Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, appears to have suffered a serious setback to her power and influence.
When MTS did clash with the Uzbek authorities in 2012, the rumour mill was full of stories that the company had fallen out with Ms Karimova. That problem may now have been solved, allowing MTS to patch up its differences with the Uzbek authorities.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan delayed a ban on imports of cars lacking some safety features from the GM car plant in Uzbekistan, media reported, a boost for the Uzbek car-making sector. Earlier this year reports said that the Nexus and Matiz models would be banned from January. The ban will now not be imposed until July.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan expects direct foreign investment of $3b this year from energy companies looking to develop its Caspian Sea oil reserves, Reuters quoted Yagshigeldy Kakayev, head of the Turkmen state agency on the use of hydrocarbon resources, as saying. In 2013, the figure was $2.5b.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian gold mining company Polymetal paid the equivalent of $619m for two gold mines in Kazakhstan belonging to Timur Kulibayev, the son-in-law of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Reuters reported.
Half the fee will be paid in shares in the new gold mine company called Kyzyl Project.
Mr Kulibayev is one of the most influential and high- profile businessmen in Kazakhstan. He has also been touted, by some, as a potential successor for his father- in-law. His main asset is Halyk Bank, one of the biggest banks in Kazakhstan. He owns a majority stake alongside his wife, Dinara Nazarbayeva, Mr Nazarbayev’s second daughter.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan Airlines may pull out of a deal to buy two Boeing Dreamliners, media reported. Reports said Azerbaijan Airlines had been due to take the first Dreamliner in June or July this year but that it was having second thoughts. Boeing has not commented.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Looking to boost production in the long run, Turkmenistan’s government said it would set up a state commission to improve the growing and transportation of cereal crops, media reported. Turkmenistan has grown increasingly rich from its gas exports. Cereal crop production has also grown.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)