OCT. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – As well as boosting gas exports to neighbouring Iran, Turkmenistan now wants to increase electricity supplies. Under President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Turkmenistan has become a major energy exporter across the Middle East. Earlier this year it agreed to boost gas supplies to Iran.
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(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)
OCT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan has nearly doubled the amount of coal it has mined so far this year, media reported. The increase was needed to meet a surge in demand created by industries switching from gas to coal for power. The boost in demand for coal should also increase employment in Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)
OCT. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – As well as boosting gas exports to neighbouring Iran, Turkmenistan now wants to increase electricity supplies. Under President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Turkmenistan has become a major energy exporter across the Middle East. Earlier this year it agreed to boost gas supplies to Iran.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
OCT. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz government said it wanted to impose price controls on coal ahead of the winter season. Coal prices jump up during the harsh winter months in Kyrgyzstan. Analysts, though, have cast doubt on the Kyrgyz government’s ability to control prices.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
SEPT. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Despite a World Bank report tentatively giving backing to Tajikistan’s Rogun Dam, Uzbekistan foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov used a speech at the UN to underline his country’s continued opposition to the project. Increased tension between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan over the dam is an important issue to monitor.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev hinted at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that he may not be as enamoured with green energy as he has suggested.
This is important because Kazakhstan’s government has spent time and money promoting itself as a standard bearer for Green Energy, including devoting much of the sales pitch of its centrepiece event EXPO-2017 in Astana to it.
“I personally do not believe in alternative energy, such as wind, and solar,” media quoted Mr Nazarbayev as saying after meeting Mr Putin in Atyrau on the Caspian Sea coast.
“I think the shale euphoria also does not make much sense. Oil and gas are our main horses and we do not need to be afraid that they are fossil fuels.”
This view may not be that surprising, afterall the economies of both Kazakhstan and Russia are based on oil and gas exports.
Even so, Kazakhstan has given the impression it wants to move on from its reliance on oil and gas for its wealth.
Throughout Kazakhstan’s cities advertise EXPO-2017 with posters carrying the slogan ‘The Energy of the Future’ against a background of a green valley filled with wind turbines and solar panels.
Kazakhstan’s future energy policy is further complicated because it has agreed a deal with Russia to build a new nuclear power station.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Energy experts handed out more predictions of energy shortages this coming winter in Kyrgyzstan. One expert, Nikolai Kratsov, told the KNews website electricity could be turned off for up to 15 hours a day. Hydropower generates Kyrgyzstan’s power. Reports say reservoir levels are low.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The World Bank has offered to lend Kyrgyzstan $25m to help improve energy infrastructure ahead of the winter, media reported. Kyrgyzstan is facing a potential energy crisis this winter with water levels in its dams at a low. Energy shortages trigger frustration which bubbles over into public anger.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan plans to start construction of its first wind farm by 2016, pro-government media quoted the director of the institute of energy at Uzbekistan’s Science Academy, Hakim Muratov, as saying. He said Germany’s GEO-NET Umweltconsulting is assessing the best spots.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
AUG. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The level of water in the Toktogul reservoir in Kyrgyzstan, vital for the country’s hydroelectric power production, is down by roughly a quarter because of the especially dry Central Asian summer, media reported. Uzbekistan has also reduced gas supplies leading analysts to predict energy shortages this winter.
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(News report from Issue No. 195, published on Aug. 13 2014)