JULY 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s government voted to scrap import duty and VAT on a series of oil-based products used in the construction and road-building sectors, media reported. These products include petroleum bitumen which is used as asphalt to build roads. Duties on these products are due to be scrapped on Jan. 1 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 9 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In Ashgabat, Turkmen officials agreed a deal to sell gas to Afghanistan. The deal is an important step for the planned TAPI pipeline which will feed gas from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India. Successful completion of TAPI would cement Turkmenistan’s place as a major global gas supplier.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan will use $5b from its sovereign wealth fund to help young people get mortgages, a senior official from the presidential administration said. The announcement, coming shortly before a presidential election, could help young people buy a house or an apartment in Baku, an increasingly expensive property market.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The chairman of Kazakh bank BTA, Erik Balapanov, resigned. The Kazakh government owns a majority stake in BTA bank, which it rescued from collapse during the 2008/9 global financial crisis. Mr Balapanov had been chairman of BTA Bank, which has debts of around $12b, since August 2012.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan state energy company SOCAR and Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft are negotiating on re-starting oil shipments along the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, media reported.
This is probably more significant for Azerbaijan-Russia relations than to energy supplies.
With construction finished in 1997, the Baku- Novorossiysk pipeline was one of the early post-Soviet Union pipelines. It runs 1,330km from Baku to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. From there the oil is shipped on to Europe. Volumes along the route, though, have been declining as Azerbaijan has worked to open up alternative routes to Europe, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
Last year, the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline pumped only about 8% of Azerbaijan’s oil to its export markets.
In May 2013, throughput along the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline stopped altogether. Both sides were losing money on the deal. There wasn’t enough volume for the Russians and the price for its oil was too low for the Azerbaijanis.
It may be economically more efficient for the pipeline to stay idle but politically it needs to re-open.
Russia has approved a major arms deal with Azerbaijan, executives from Rosneft, the Russian state energy company, have visited Baku and senior Russian politicians have talked about a strategic deal between the two countries.
Re-starting an oil pipeline between the two countries may fit the pattern of increasingly close cooperation.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Netherlands-registered Venus Airport Investments BV will pay out $3b tenge ($19.7m) in dividends to its shareholders on profits from its sole ownership of Almaty International Airport, media reported. Venus Airport Investments bought Almaty airport in 2011. It is linked to members of the Kazakh elite.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan wants to sell its Soviet-era torpedo factory on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul, media reported. Russia has previously offered to buy the factory and is still the most likely purchaser. Media quoted a Kyrgyz government official saying the factory was worth $30m and the surrounding land another $180m.
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(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)
JULY 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — British companies signed deals in Kazakhstan worth $1b during PM David Cameron’s two-day trip, local media reported. This was the first trip to Kazakhstan by a serving British PM. Most of the deals agreed were in the energy and mining sectors.
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(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)
JULY 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Czech car-maker Skoda will start producing its saloon car the Octavia in Kazakhstan from this month, media reported, highlighting the Kazakh public’s growing demand for new cars. Skoda, owned by Germany’s Volkswagen, produces cars at a plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk, eastern Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)
JULY 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked his energy minister, reportedly because of continued delays to the Kashagan oil project, Kazakhstan’s flagship energy development. Sauat Mynbayev had been energy minister since 2007. He moves to head Kazmunaigas, the Kazakh state energy company. Uzakbai Karabalin, a technocrat, becomes the new energy minister.
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(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)