Tag Archives: electricity

Investors snap up first Tajik sovereign debt issue

DUSHANBE, SEPT. 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Investors snapped up Tajikistan’s first sovereign bond issue, surprising Central Asia analysts who said the auction came with huge risk.

The $500m Eurobond issue came with a coupon of 7.125%, which analysts said was around 200 basis points more than the price paid by other frontier economies for debt. It is set to mature in 2027.

Tajikistan, considered the poorest of the Central Asian countries with an economy reliant on remittances, has said it wants to raise the cash to pay for construction of the giant Rogun Dam.
Lutz Roehmeyer, director at Landesbank Berlin Investment, invested in some of the debt.

“They don’t want to splash out the money on any nonsense, they want to build a dam and produce electricity which would be a massive boost for the local economy,” he was quoted by Reuters as saying. The Rogun dam is part of a wider project to supply electricity generated by hydroelectric power to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Tajikistan has a reputation for corruption and analysts warned that investing in Tajikistan was a gamble. Last year, the government bailed out its commercial banks.

Max Lambertson of the EIU said yields on investment grade debt around the world were currently so poor that investors were looking at far riskier options to find profit.

“Investors typically show little interest in Tajikistan, which has a poor record with foreign investors and multilaterals,” he said.

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— This story was first published in issue 343 of The Conway Bulletin on Sept. 15 2017

Nazarbayev opens nuclear fuel bank

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ALMATY, AUG. 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev opened the first nuclear fuel bank owned and managed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The low-enriched uranium fuel bank based at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Oskemen will be the first independently-managed supply of fuel for nuclear power stations. It will take a year to stock the plant with low-enriched uranium.

For Mr Nazarbayev the opening of the IAEA’s nuclear fuel bank has important inferences, including cementing Kazakhstan’s self-made image as a centre for peaceful nuclear energy.

At the opening ceremony in Astana, Mr Nazarbayev said that the nuclear fuel bank should reduce the risk of nuclear war.

“We are the largest producer of uranium and are ready to play an important role in the world energy,” he was quoted by a government press release as saying.

Over the past 25 years, Mr Nazarbayev has carefully crafted an image for himself as a pioneer of nuclear safety. He voluntarily surrendered an arsenal of nuclear weapons, left over by the Soviet Union after its collapse in 1991, and has pushed Kazakhstan to become the biggest producer of raw uranium in the world. It now has a market share of around 40%.

Some have even suggested that Mr Nazarbayev views the nuclear route as a way of securing a Nobel Peace Prize.

The low-enriched uranium nuclear fuel bank is seen as a resource of last resort for countries that need to secure supplies for nuclear power stations.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Uzbekistan joins IRENA

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TASHKENT, AUG. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan joined the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an intergovernmental organisation set up to help member countries strengthen their sources of green power. IRENA has 152 members. Uzbekistan has previously shied away from joining international organisations. Under the presidency of Shavkat Mirziyoyev, though, it has become open to international cooperation.

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(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)

Czech investors in Kyrgyzstan’s hydro projects may be a false company

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BISHKEK, JULY 17 2017 (The Bulletin) — The Czech company that Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev was lauding for agreeing a multi-million-dollar deal to build new hydropower stations may not even exist.

Less than a week after a triumphant Mr Atambayev was quoted in media talking up Liglass, a company based in a provincial Czech town, as the new backers of a hydropower project that Russia backed out of in 2015, it has emerged that even his own diplomats were warning him that the company only appears to exist on paper.

Kyrgyzstan has staked much of its future economic potential on developing its hydropower. The deal was considered important because

Russia’s Rushydro pulled out of a $700m agreement to develop the hydropower stations in 2015.

Liglass had, according to Mr Atambayev, promised to pay $37m for a 50% stake in the Upper Naryn HPP, which includes two major hydropower projects, and to build and operate a string of smaller hydropower stations.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

Czech firm buys into Kyrgyz hydropower

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BISHKEK, JULY 10 2017 (The Bulletin) — Liglass Trading, a Czech company, signed a deal with the Kyrgyz government to buy into a major hydropower project that Russia pulled out of in December 2015 after a drop in oil prices and US-led sanctions triggered an economic recession.

The deal means Liglass will pay $37m for a 50% stake in Upper Naryn HPP, the company created to build and operate the Akbulun and Naryn-1 hydropower plants. It will also build 10 smaller hydro stations by end-202o.

Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev hailed the deal.

“The arrival of large-scale private investment in Europe will serve as a strong signal to potential investors from around the world, confirming the readiness of Kyrgyzstan to create all the necessary conditions for doing business and effective implementation of mutually beneficial joint projects,” he was quoted as saying in a government press release.

RusHydro had planned to invest more than $700m into Kyrgyz hydropower before it quit in 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Uranium bank to open in August, says Kazakh President

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JULY 3 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev said that a low-enriched Uranium bank will open in eastern Kazakhstan on Aug. 29. The project is being administered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and is being promoted by Kazakh officials and Mr Nazarbayev as yet another contribution by Kazakhstan to world peace. On the day the uranium bank opens, Mr Nazarbayev intends to give out his first international award for nuclear disarmament. He already has his own peace award.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

New hydro power plant opens in Georgia

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JULY 3 2017 (The Bulletin) — Adjaristsqali Georgia, a subsidiary of India’s Tata Power, said that it had completed the construction of the 186MW Shuakhevi Hydro Power Station in Georgia, one of the largest to be built in the last 50 years. Its finance partners for the project were the IFC (part of the World Bank) and Norway’s Clean Energy Invest. The project cost $420m to build and has been under construction since 2013. Speaking at the opening of the plant, Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili said that power produced by the plant would be sold during winter, when there is traditionally a deficit. Georgia has been heavily investing in its hydropower capacity.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

CASA-1000 is on schedule, leaders say in Tajik capital

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DUSHANBE, JULY 6 2017 (The Bulletin) — The CASA-1000 electricity generation and supply project, considered an essential Western-based link between Central Asia and South Asia, will be finished this year, as scheduled, leaders of the four nations working on its construction said at a meeting in the Tajik capital.

This is important because CASA- 1000, which will generate electricity through hydropower stations in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and distribute it to Afghanistan and Pakistan, is the main transnational Central Asia project backed by the West and its financial institutions. The US government has even described it as an important part of a new north-south Silk Road.

The West has lost influence in Central Asia over the last few years to Russia’s military expansionist strategy and China’s trade-orientated ‘Belt and Road’ policy.

Looking to allay fears that timings had slipped, Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Kyrgyz PM Sooronbay Jeenbekov and host Tajik President Emommali Rakhmon lined up to talk up progress.

Pakistani news agencies quoted Mr Sharif as saying: “We must make efforts to ensure that the project is completed well in time.”

There are still major security and operational concerns over CASA-1000, though, which need to be solved.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Armenia to complete power line

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JUNE 27 2017 (The Bulletin) — Armenia will complete electricity transmissions lines to Iran and Georgia by the end of 2019, media reported quoting the deputy minister of energy, Hayk Harutyunyan. This is important because one of Armenia’s key export potentials is electricity. It operates the only nuclear power station in the region and has export capacity.

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(News report from Issue No. 335, published on July 3 2017)

EBRD to find solar park in Kazakhstan

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JUNE 15 2017 (The Bulletin) — The EBRD is set to finance the construction of a second solar power park in southern Kazakhstan, media reported. The EBRD will give a loan of $45m for the solar power park, the Clean Technology Fund will give $10m and the owners of the field, not named by media, will stump up another $80m. After the construction of Burnoye Solar 2, it will constitute one of the biggest solar power fields in Europe or Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)