APRIL 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — China’s state-owned Sinopec bought the Kazakhstan business unit of Russia’s Lukoil for $1.2b. The deal to buy 50% of Caspian Investment Resources ltd (CIR) underlines the shift in Kazakhstan’s energy sector away from Russia towards China. Sinopec already owned the other 50% of CIR.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said that he wanted to develop the energy reserves in Turkmenistan’s sector of the Caspian Sea. Under Mr Berdymukhamedov’s 7-year presidency Turkmenistan has propelled itself into becoming one of the biggest energy suppliers in the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom officially took over KyrgyzGaz, the previously state-owned gas company. Gazprom’s takeover of debt-straddled KyrgyzGaz — to be renamed Gazprom-Kyrgyzstan — gives the Kremlin increased leveraged over Bishkek.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Eager to boost oil production, Kazakhstan has said that it wants to increase output from its current projects to make up for the shortfall created by the longer-than- expected shutdown at Kashagan. Kashagan had been expected to turn Kazakhstan into a major energy superpower but instead is currently under repair.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two Azerbaijani banks secured multi-million dollar loans from foreign lenders, underlining confidence in Azerbaijan’s economy. AccessBank secured a $60m loan for microfinance deals and International Bank of Azerbaijan secured a $125m loan to lend to other companies.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — More and more foreign tourists are heading to Nukus in Karkalpakstan, western Uzbekistan, to visit the dried up Aral Sea, the Eurasianet website reported. The Aral Sea had been a major inland sea but Soviet water systems siphoned off water and it shrivelled to a fraction of its size.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Ashgabat, government officials from Oman said they wanted to develop the previously muted concept of setting up an energy transit corridor. States in the Persian Gulf have been trying to formalise the concept of an energy corridor with Central Asia for some years.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh businesses and consumers need to learn to re-pay loans, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev said in a rare foray into personal finance. Mr Nazarbayev’s frustration is understandable. Kazakhstan has one of the highest proportions of bad loans in the world, hindering its economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It appears that Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is in a rush to start on the so-called TAPI pipeline that planners hope will carry gas from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to south Asia.
The pugnacious Mr Berdymukhamedov said that work should begin on the pipeline in 2015, an ambitious timeframe in anybody’s books.
TAPI has been talked about for a few years. The US and others see the pipeline as a way of locking in Afghanistan, and to a lesser extent Pakistan, into the global energy network.
Once the notoriously restless and fractious Afghanistan is a stakeholder in this system, the thinking goes, stability will be more appealing.
And Turkmenistan is the perfect gas supplier. Stable and with ample supplies, Turkmenistan is keen to exploit its reserves and increase its client list, as Mr Berdymukhamedov’s haste betrays.
The problem is that although Turkmenistan may be ready to begin this ambitious 1,735km project, Afghanistan and Pakistan are far less ready.
Afghanistan is currently midway through a complex presidential election and is facing the prospect of a security vacuum once NATO forces withdraw this year.
The $8b project has enough support from international donors and from Western nations to push it forward. Turkmenistan, which is looking to boost its client base, needs to be patient.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia is considering launching a state-run development bank to support large-scale infrastructure projects, media reported. Former Georgian PM and head of the Georgian Dream coalition Bidzina Ivanishvili first voiced the idea of a Georgian Development Bank.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)