MAY 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov visited Ashgabat for the second time in seven months to sign agreements with Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdimukhamedov. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, both major gas producers, have increasingly worked together to open new markets and leverage more economic power.
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(News report from Issue No. 39, published on May 9 2011)
MAY 6 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The opening of the Nabucco pipeline which will pump gas to Europe from Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea fields will be delayed by two years to 2017, said the group of European energy companies developing the project. Nabucco is key to European plans to bypass Russia’s pipeline monopoly but it has struggled to secure gas supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 39, published on May 9 2011)
MAY 9 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A row between the Uzbek government and London- listed gold producer Oxus Gold over control of Amantaytau Goldfields, their joint venture, escalated. Oxus Gold said the Uzbek government had accused it of violating tax regulations and replied that the Uzbek government was trying to run it out of the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 39, published on May 9 2011)
APRIL 26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – China secured more control over energy supplies from Central Asia when it agreed to lend Turkmenistan $4b to develop the South Yolotan gas field. South Yolotan is one of the largest gas fields in the world. Most of its gas is expected to be pumped to China.
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(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
APRIL 19/20 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – China extended its influence in Central Asia by signing gas and finance deals worth billions of US dollars with Uzbekistan during a visit by Uzbek President Islam Karimov to Beijing. In the last few years China has steadily bought assets across the region where it is competing with Russia and the West for influence.
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(News report from Issue No. 37, published on April 25 2011)
APRIL 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – In contrast to the cool reception he received when he visited the European Union in Brussels in January, China laid on smiles and a guard of honour for Uzbek President Islam Karimov’s state visit on April 19/20.
Mr Karimov was in Beijing to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao and to sign deals worth billions of dollars including an agreement to double the amount of gas Uzbekistan sells to China. The Uzbek state news website uza.uz said the deals were worth $5b and that Chinese banks had also agreed to lend $1.5b to 4 Uzbek banks for joint-ventures.
The numbers underscore just how much power and impact China can buy in Central Asia. Mr Hu hosted a similar visit to Beijing by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in February.
Over the last few years China has steadily bought up assets across the region, subverting the influence of both Russia and the West.
For the Central Asia states, China allure is not just its wealth, its proximity and its hunger for oil and gas. For now, at least, China is also less troublesome to deal with.
Former colonial power Russia has quarrelled with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan over the price of gas and the West has previously condemned human rights abuses, such as the shooting in 2005 of around 500 people at a protest in eastern Uzbekistan. China, instead, talks of jointly defeating terrorism, is welcoming and lays on the charm.
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(News report from Issue No. 37, published on April 25 2011)
APRIL 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Senior officials from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Oman and Iran signed an agreement to link their railway systems to create a transport corridor between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. The deal potentially creates another important export route for oil and gas.
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(News report from Issue No. 37, published on April 25 2011)
APRIL 15/16 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Indian PM Manmohan Singh visited Kazakhstan and signed a number of deals. The deals included Indian state energy company ONGC Videsh buying a 25% stake in the Satpayev exploration block, one of the biggest in the Caspian Sea, and for Kazakhstan to supply India with 2,100 tonnes of uranium by 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 36, published on April 18 2011)
APRIL 18 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A corruption scandal over the privatisation in 2008 of Kyrgyz mobile operator MegaCom and its part re-nationalisation last year is testing the survival skills of Kyrgyzstan’s fragile government coalition.
On March 31, President Roza Otunbayeva sacked Prosecutor-General Kubatbek Baibolov for his links to the scandal. But Mr Baibolov didn’t go quietly and he accused first deputy PM Omurbek Babanov of corruption.
Mr Babanov is head of the Respublika party, one of three partners in a precarious coalition cobbled together at the end of 2010. On April 13, Mr Babanov quit the government while a parliamentary committee investigated the allegations.
For now, his resignation appears to have prevented a split in the coalition but tempers are fraying and a few days before his resignation a fight broke out in parliament.
Corruption is widespread in Kyrgyzstan — ranked by the Berlin-based lobby group Transparency International at 164 out of 178 in its 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index — but the country desperately needs a stable 2011 after a difficult 2010.
Kyrgyzstan hosts both a Russian and US air base and is trying to attract foreign investors, particularly to its mining sector, but in 2010 a revolution, ethnic violence and a new Constitution which shifted power to parliament from the president all underlined its fragility.
Now rampant poverty amplified by soaring inflation and frustration at official corruption are stirring unease once again.
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(News report from Issue No. 36, published on April 18 2011)
APRIL 18 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps Kazakhstan’s most important company, state oil and gas monopoly Kazmunaigas said net profits doubled in 2010 to about $2.7b, Reuters reported. Kazmunaigas did not give a reason for the profit rise.
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(News report from Issue No. 36, published on April 18 2011)