Tag Archives: business

Russian oil transits through Kazakhstan

NOV. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The deal has been in the making all year. It’s still not there, yet, but it is close.

Rosneft, a Russian energy company, signed a preliminary deal with Kazakh energy company Kazmunaigas and oil pipeline monopoly KazTransOil to transit oil to China.

A final deal is expected by the end of the year.

Russia is increasing exports to China but it has run out of pipeline capacity. Kazakhstan has invested hugely in expanding its pipeline network and has excess capacity so, for a fee, it has agreed to pump Russian oil east.

The deal is important because it further cements the Russia-Kazakhstan alliance; Kazakhstan is a member of Russia’s Customs Union and the two countries are integrating their defence systems.

It also highlights the importance of Kazakhstan’s pipeline infrastructure to China. Without it, China’s oil supply would be weaker.

Media reported that Russia plans, currently, to pump 140,000 barrels per day through Kazakhstan’s pipeline network. This, though, is expected to rise.

The final details have yet to be worked out but this is significant news.

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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)

Kazakh oilfield suffers new delays

NOV. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kashagan will not re-start oil production until 2014 because of worse-than-expected repairs to a gas leak, Christophe de Margerie, head of Total, one of the partners developing the Caspian Sea site, said. Over the past month, the consortium developing Kashagan has gradually delayed further the re-start of oil production.

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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)

Azerbaijan builds port in Turkey

NOV. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR wants to build the largest port in Turkey, media quoted its head, Rovnag Abdullayev, as saying. The plan underlines Azerbaijan’s importance to Turkey as one of its main economic partners. The port will cost $400m to build and be operational by 2016, Mr Abdullayev said.

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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)

Kazakhstan signs oil deal with Russia

NOV. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia and Kazakhstan signed a preliminary deal to pump Russian oil through Kazakh pipelines to China. Russia’s pipeline network is full while Kazakhstan has spare capacity.

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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)

Refinery restarts operations in Kazakhstan

NOV. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Shymkent refinery re-started fuel production after a month-long planned shut-down for maintenance work, official Kazakh media reported, easing pressure on petrol supplies. Re-starting the Shymkent refinery, one of only three in Kazakhstan, on schedule was important after reports of petrol shortages and price rises.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)

Karimov sacks deputy at Uzbekneftegaz

NOV. 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Fuel shortages and a power struggle in Uzbekistan appear to have claimed another major scalp in Shavkat Majidov, the long-serving first deputy chief of Uzbekneftegaz. Although no official information has been made available, media reported Uzbek President Islam Karimov sacked Mr Majidov over continued fuel supply problems.

Mr Majidov was a powerful man, in charge of oil-related affairs in Uzbekistan and closely linked with Gulnara Karimova, Mr Karimov’s elder daughter.

Ms Karimova had once been considered a potential presidential successor but more recently she has come under pressure from rivals. Prosecutors in Europe and Uzbekistan have opened investigations into her business affairs; her supporters are being targeted.

Mr Majidov’s removal, according to a media report, is linked to an investigation into shortages at the Ferghana Oil Refinery. Ms Karimova’s ally Akbarali Abdullayev had controlled the refinery until police arrested him in October. This arrest, it appears, left Mr Majidov vulnerable. It has also allowed outsiders another glimpse of the interwoven world of politics and business in Uzbekistan.

Sultan Alisher, a member of parliament loyal to Mr Karimov, and director of the Shurtangaz chemical plant, has taken over as deputy head of Uzbekneftegaz. He’s a safe pair of hands that Mr Karimov can rely on as the power game in Uzbekistan unfolds.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)

Uzbekistan to import oil from Turkmenistan

NOV. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to stem fuel shortages, Uzbekistan has agreed a deal with neighbouring Turkmenistan to import oil to Uzbek refineries, media reported quoting a subsidiary of the Uzbek state-run energy company Uzbekneftegaz. Oil production in Uzbekistan has been decreasing and its three refineries are running below capacity.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)

Kyrgyzstan threatens nationalisation of mine

NOV. 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev told the BBC that he might try to nationalise the Kumtor gold mine in the east of the country. Kyrgyzstan is locked in negotiations with Centerra Gold, listed in Toronto, which owns a majority stake in Kumtor, the country’s largest industrial asset.

(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)

Customs Union changes the Kazakh car market

NOV. 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Battered German cars once dominated the streets of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city. They were old and rusting but still powerful and reliable.

Crucially, too, it was cheaper to buy a second-hand car in Europe and drive it to Kazakhstan than to buy a new one made at a Kazakh factory.

That’s now changed.

When Kazakhstan entered the Customs Union it slapped an import tax on second-hand cars from Europe. The main beneficiary of this has been Russia’s AvtoVaz which makes the Lada brand of car.

It’s now cheaper to buy a Lada from Russia or a car made in Kazakhstan than it is to import a second-hand banger from Europe.

Figures released last week by the Association of Kazakhstan Auto dealers showed that Lada made up 35% of new car sales out of the 117,000 sold in the first nine months of the year. This is already five times more than the number sold in the whole of 2010.

And more and more cars are being made in Kazakhstan. AvtoVaz owns a 25 percent stake in Azyia Avto, a Kazakh carmaker and it now plans to open a factory building Ladas in Ust Kamenogorsk by 2016.

But shifting Russian manufacturing to Kazakhstan could have far-reaching consequences, said Vsevolod Samokhvalov, a researcher and analyst at Cambridge University.

“It will lock the country (Kazakhstan) into the disadvantaged low added-value part of the post-Soviet production chain,” he said.

(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)

Islamic finance gains momentum in Kazakhstan

OCT. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan wants to turn itself into a regional centre for Islamic finance, various Kazakh officials said at a conference in London. Islamic finance is becoming an increasingly popular way of branding banks.

(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)