MAY 19 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – An Uzbek-South Korean joint venture said it had secured a $2.5b loan from a consortium of banks to build a gas plant in the northwest of the country. The planned gas plant at the Surgil field is considered an important part of Uzbekistan’s future energy policy and will create 1,000 jobs.
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(News report from Issue No. 089, published on May 25 2012)
MAY 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh government insisted a probe into corruption at Italian energy company ENI would not slow development of its Kashagan Caspian Sea oil field. ENI is the lead company in Kashagan, one of the biggest oil finds in the past 40 years. Last week Italian prosecutors opened an investigation into ENI’s foreign deals.
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(News report from Issue No. 088, published on May 18 2012)
MAY 9 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Chzhunnen Oil Exploration, a Chinese company, said it had found oil in southern Kyrgyzstan, raising hopes of developing a small but important energy industry. Soon after Chzhunnen said it had produced a test barrel of oil at a well, Kyrgyz leaders pledged support for further investment.
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(News report from Issue No. 087, published on May 11 2012)
MAY 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Sources inside the Turkmen energy ministry told the AP news agency that Turkmenistan would sign a deal with Afghanistan, Pakistan and India later this month on gas prices for the so-called TAPI pipeline. The planned pipeline, due to run from Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan, is seen as an important economic step for the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 087, published on May 11 2012)
MAY 3 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Bringing an end to an 18-month long dispute that soured relations between Turkmenistan and Russia, the chairman of Russian mobile operator MTS, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, announced on Turkmen TV that a deal had been made to allow it back into the country. MTS had been the biggest mobile operator in Turkmenistan before it lost its licence in Dec. 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 086, published on May 4 2012)
MAY 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has decreed that only the iconic London cab can be used as a taxi in Baku, media reported. Last year, a unit of Azerbaijan’s government bought hundreds of the London taxi cabs from manufacturer Magnesium Bronze, based in Britain. It now leases the taxis out to drivers.
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(News report from Issue No. 086, published on May 4 2012)
MAY 3 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty published an investigation into the UK gold mining company AIMROC which it says is owned by the family of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev through a series of Panama-registered companies. In 2007, the Azerbaijani government awarded AIMROC a lucrative gold mining contract.
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(News report from Issue No. 086, published on May 4 2012)
APRIL 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Fond of eye-catching initiatives and with a flair for showmanship, Georgian President Mikheil Saahashvili was in his element on April 21 when he welcomed Donald Trump, the renowned US property developer, to the South Caucasus state.
Mr Trump had flown in from the US (via Istanbul) to unveil plans to build a $250m glittering new tower in Batumi, a town on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. This was the culmination of a deal signed in March 2011 when Mr Saahashvili had been in New York.
The planned 47-storey residential tower may be called Trump Tower Batumi but Mr Trump will only be one of the investors funding the project.
The private investment firm Silk Road Group is leading the push to find financial backing. And so the hard work starts.
Since a short war in 2008 against Russia, Georgia’s economy has rebounded due mainly to a boost in foreign direct investments (FDI) which Mr Saakashvili has lobbied hard for. FDI measured $981m last year compared to $658m in 2009, Reuters reported.
Finding investors for Trump Tower Batumi and completing the project will act as a litmus test for the attractiveness of the Georgian economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 085, published on April 27 2012)
APRIL 23 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Anglo Asian Mining, which is listed on London’s AIM stock market, announced it has found a new gold deposit in Azerbaijan. The find, around 350km west of Baku, is significant as its boosts Azerbaijan’s overall gold reserves. The Azerbaijani government owns a 49% stake in Anglo Asian Mining.
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(News report from Issue No. 085, published on April 27 2012)
APRIL 23 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan, now a temporary member of the UN Security Council, asked the UN to close the nuclear power station in Armenia because it was unsafe, media quoted Agshin Mekhdiyev, Azerbaijan’s UN envoy, as saying. Armenia dismissed the demand as propaganda.
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(News report from Issue No. 085, published on April 27 2012)