MARCH 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In comments made on a trip to Dushanbe, Kazakh foreign minister Yerlan Idrissov appeared to signal Kazakhstan’s intent to mediate in a long-running dispute between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan over water rights, media reported. With Iran’s help, Tajikistan is building a dam that will effect water flow to Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
MARCH 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — As if waking from a deep slumber and noticing nearby riches to grab, India is slowly buying up energy resources in the Caspian Sea region.
On March 29, Sudhir Vasudeva, head of India’s state-owned energy company ONGC, said that its subsidiary ONGC Videsh had completed the purchase of a 2.72% stake in Azerbaijan’s Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil fields in the Caspian Sea and a 2.36% stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
ONGC Videsh bought the stakes from the US oil company Hess for $1b. The deal was announced last year. This deal is important as it marks India’s entry into the Caspian Sea energy race.
India needs more energy and has announced an ambitious expansion plan to match; Central Asia and South Caucasus region is an obvious place to expand in to.
But India is playing catch-up. Chinese, Russian and Western energy companies are already entrenched in the region.
That said, India has unveiled impressive plans. It is pushing to build a pipeline from gas fields in Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to south Asia and it has agreed a $5b deal to buy an 8.4% stake in Kashagan, in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea, from US’s Conoco Phillip.
Kazakhstan has yet to approve the Kashagan deal but India’s Caspian Sea intentions are clear.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
APRIL 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Negotiators converged on Almaty for a second round of talks aimed at unlocking the issue of Iran’s nuclear programme. These two-day talks are a follow up to negotiations in February. Iran has said that it is developing nuclear capability for civilian purposes but the US suspects that it wants to build a bomb.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
APRIL 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Underlining Kazakhstan’s reliance on its energy sector, Kazakh PM Serik Akhmetov, signed into law a 50% increase in oil export duties.
From April 13, exporters will pay a $60 tax to the government for every tonne of oil they export, up from $40. Reuters quoted deputy economy minister Marat Kusainov as saying that the extra revenue will be spent on social projects.
Wherever the extra revenue is spent, energy companies will no doubt be tired of being used as a cash cow whenever the Kazakh government wants to raise cash.
The government has flip-flopped on the oil export duty, introducing it in 2008, scrapping it altogether in 2009, when the global economy tumbled and energy prices fell, before reintroducing it again.
In 2010, the export tax stood was $20 per tonne. This increased to $40 per tonne in 2011.
The oil export duty also re-enforces the feeling that the Kazakh government is often too focused on taxing energy exporters rather than developing other parts of the economy.
After all, in 2011 Kazakh government ministers promised there would be no oil export tax rise until at least 2014.
Clearly the plan, if not the mind-set, changed.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
MARCH 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s national airline, Armavia, declared itself bankrupt after failing to find a buyer. AP quoted Armavia’s owner, Mikhail Bagdasarov, as saying that the economic downturn and problems with the Russia-made Sukhoi passenger jet had lead to the debt. Armavia operates 14 aircraft to 20 destinations.
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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)
MARCH 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Swedish investigators said they may consider fining or confiscating assets from the part state-owned telecoms operator Teliasonera if criminal charges stick over an investigation into whether the company illegally paid bribes to a Gibraltar-registered firm in 2007/8 for 3G licences in Uzbekistan, media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)
MARCH 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The leaders of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan signed a deal in Ashgabat to build a 400km extension to link up their railway networks, media reported. The deal marks another step to integrating Afghanistan into the regional economy. Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov asked international lenders to help pay the $2b cost of the railway.
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(News report from Issue No. 128, published on March 22 2013)
MARCH 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan plans to start gas production at its Galkynysh gas field by July, media quoted the Turkmen minister for oil and gas, Mukhammednur Halylov, at a conference in Dubai. Galkynysh is the world’s second largest gas field and the start of production will underline Turkmenistan’s status as a major energy supplier.
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(News report from Issue No. 128, published on March 22 2013)
MARCH 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – State-owned TurkmenGas supplies 20b cubic metres of gas to China a year, media quoted the company’s chairman, Kakageldy Abdullayev, telling the Dubai conference. Mr Abdullayev said that by 2020 Turkmenistan would supply China with 65b cubic metres of gas a year, more than Russia and Kazakhstan combined.
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(News report from Issue No. 128, published on March 22 2013)
MARCH 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has agreed a deal with Iran to receive goods and produce in lieu of fees owed for gas, Bloomberg reported quoting the state-run Iranian Students Agency. Turkmenistan is an important supplier of gas to northern Iran, reportedly supplying up to a third of its imports. US sanctions have hit Iran’s cash flow.
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(News report from Issue No. 126, published on March 8 2013)