NOV. 7 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – BP, Statoil and Total have bought stakes in the proposed TANAP pipeline that will pump gas from Azerbaijan to Turkey, media reported. The ultimate market is the EU which has been trying to reduce its dependency on Russia for gas supplies. BP and Statoil will each buy 12% stakes in TANAP and Total will buy 5%.
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(News report from Issue No. 112, published on Nov. 9 2012)
NOV. 2 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Investigators in Moscow seized an apartment belonging to Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbekistan’s president, media reported. Media outlets said the seizure of Ms Karimova’s apartment, which is reportedly worth $10m, was designed to counter pressure in Uzbekistan on Russian mobile operator MTS.
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(News report from Issue No. 112, published on Nov. 9 2012)
OCT. 31 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Underlying a blossoming partnership, media reported that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had discussed in a telephone conversation the progress of a series of joint projects, including the delayed construction of a $330m hydropower station on the border.
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(News report from Issue No. 111, published on Nov. 2 2012)
OCT. 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – It may have been grand-standing, but it was still clear that Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon was pleased.
Mr Rakhmon was opening a new tunnel under a treacherous mountain road that links the north of Tajikistan to the south, when, according to the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti, he said that this was now the shortest route between Asia and Europe.
He was wrong, of course, but the Shakhristan Tunnel is still important. Not only does it improve journey times between Dushanbe, the capital, and Khujand, the second city, but this 5km-long tunnel under the Pamir mountains also underlines China’s commitment to the region.
With funds from Beijing, a Chinese company built the tunnel under a pass which is often closed by snow in the heavy winter months.
Tunnel projects in Tajikistan form just one part of China’s regional strategy. It is investing heavily in Central Asia, building relations by improving transport links, handing out cheap loans and buying up resources.
Across the border from where Mr Rakhmon was admiring his new tunnel, the Uzbek government was also thanking Beijing. It had just borrowed $220m to modernise a heating plant in Tashkent.
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(News report from Issue No. 111, published on Nov. 2 2012)
OCT. 24 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The head of Azerbaijan’s state energy company Socar, Rovnag Abdullayev, said there were no plans to drop BP as the operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field in the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev had criticised BP earlier this month for disappointing production figures from the field.
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(News report from Issue No. 110, published on Oct. 26 2012)
OCT. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – BP transferred 10 senior engineers to Azerbaijan to help boost production at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil field it operates in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, Bloomberg news agency reported. Earlier this month, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev publicly blamed BP for declining production at ACG which came on-stream in the mid-2000s.
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(News report from Issue No. 109, published on Oct. 19 2012)
OCT. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Yerevan’s main airport, Zvartnots, temporarily suspended flights of the national carrier Armavia over a debt dispute, media reported. Zvartnots has said that Armavia owes it more than $3m and refused to service its flights, leaving them stranded. Zvartnots and Armavia have previously rowed about debt.
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(News report from Issue No. 109, published on Oct. 19 2012)
OCT. 14 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s minister for oil and gas, Kakageldy Abdullayev, told reporters at an energy forum that construction of the TAPI pipeline would begin in 2017. TAPI aims to pump gas from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to markets in Pakistan and India. Bangladesh has again stated it would like to join the project.
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(News report from Issue No. 109, published on Oct. 19 2012)
OCT. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – An appeal court in Uzbekistan upheld accusations from the financial police of tax evasion by UzCarlsberg, the Uzbek subsidiary of Danish brewer Carlsberg, local media reported. Production at UzCarlsberg, which employs 400 people, has ceased since mid-June. Western businesses have previously complained that the Uzbek authorities pressure successful businesses through tax claims.
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(News report from Issue No. 109, published on Oct. 19 2012)
OCT. 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gulnara Karimova, the 40-year-old daughter of Uzbek president, leads a glitzy lifestyle. In September, she released a new pop song and this month she launched her own perfume.
Now, though, Ms Karimova has been indirectly linked to a money laundering investigation in Switzerland that focuses on four Uzbek nationals.
Publicly accessible documents in France, unearthed by Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyra and reported on by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, showed that on at least one occasion Ms Karimova co-signed a document for property in the south of France with Alisher Ergashev, one of two Uzbek men detained in Geneva in July by investigators.
It’s also emerged that another of the Uzbek nationals being investigated in Switzerland is Gayane Avakyan, an ethnic Armenian woman closely linked to Ms Karimova.
Aside from the Swiss investigation, Ms Avakyan is also one of the main protagonists in a deal Swedish prosecutors are looking into. In the 2007/8 deal, Swedish telecoms company TeliaSonera bought an Uzbek 3G mobile licence from Gibraltar-registered Takilant. TeliaSonera has denied any wrong-doing, but Swedish prosecutors are investigating irregularities.
Both the investigations, and Ms Karimova’s glitzy lifestyle, continue.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 109, published on Oct. 19 2012)