Tag Archives: gas

Stock market: Tethys Petroleum, Nostrum Oil & Gas

DEC. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil prices fell by almost 10% to under $40/barrel this week — its lowest price since 2009. This hit several of the region’s energy companies who were already dealing with a sharp slump in their share prices.

Tethys Petroleum closed at 4.38p on Thursday, down 2.7% in one week. Roxi Petroleum continued to decline, closing at 6.38p on Thursday, down 8.9% on the week. Nostrum Oil & Gas shares lost 3% to close at 369.5p.

Commodity companies were hit by the general downturn in the market and the news of giant miner Anglo American scaling down operations dramatically. Gold prices fell again by 2% this week, hitting $1,067/ounce.

This affected Kazakhstan-focused mining companies such as Central Asia Metals and KAZ Minerals, which lost 8.9% and 3.8% respectively this week. Kyrgyzstan-focused miner Centerra Gold surged 4%in the Toronto Stock Exchange to 7.94 Canadian dollars, against the trend of other companies, perhaps rallying on its positive results in the first three-quarters of the year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Georgia to increase gas supplies from Russia

DEC. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s energy minister Kakha Kaladze met with Alexei Miller, the chairman of Russia’s Gazprom, in Luxembourg to discuss increasing imports of Russian gas. No deal has been signed although even the talks have stirred controversy in Georgia where memories of the 2008 war against Russia are still very fresh.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Statoil completes sale of 20% stake in Azerbaijan’s TAP

DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil completed its retreat from the South Caucasus gas industry with its sale of a 20% stake in the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), part of a pipeline network that will pump gas from Azerbaijan to Europe.

Italian pipeline company Snam bought Statoil’s TAP stake for €208m ($227m), increasing Italy’s commitment in the Southern Gas Corridor, running from Azerbaijan, through Turkey and Greece, to Italy.

Over the past two years, Statoil has quit Azerbaijan,’s gas sector selling its 25% stake in the giant Shah Deniz field and its 15.5% stake in the South Caucasus Pipeline, which transports gas from Shah Deniz to Georgia and Turkey.

Statoil hailed its sale of its stake in TAP as generating value for share- holders but the final price of €208m is lower than the €400m that industry analysts had forecasted over the summer.

Statoil still owns an 8.56% stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field and a 8.71% share in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Turkmenistan not doing enough to attract Western firms -US

DEC. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – If Turkmenistan wants to realise its potential and become one of the world’s top energy exporters it should improve its foreign investment climate, Reuters quoted Daniel Rosenblum, deputy assistant secretary for Central Asia at the U.S. Department of State, as saying on a trip to Ashgabat.

Western companies have found it difficult to enter the Turkmen energy sector despite an apparent abundance of hydrocarbon wealth. It is estimated that Turkmenistan holds the world’s four largest gas reserves.

Turkmenistan only offers Western companies service contracts on its various gas projects and not the production sharing agreements that many want. And this, Mr Rosenblum said, would hold back Turkmenistan’s development as a gas exporter.

“A critical element of success is to create the right mix of incentives,” he said according to the Reuters report.

Most of Turkmenistan’s gas flows to China through a network of pipelines that cross Central Asia but Turkmen officials have said they want to widen the client base. This includes pumping gas to Europe and India.

Turkmenistan will officially begin work on the TAPI pipeline that will, it hopes, eventually pump gas directly to consumers in India. Its an ambitious project and one that Western companies had previously expressed interest in.

The lack of a production sharing agreement, though, coupled with a poor record for corruption and the sheer ambition of building a 1,700km pipeline across unstable Afghanistan, with all its security concerns, has deterred potential suitors.

In a thinly veiled criticism of Turkmenistan, Mr Rosenblum told a conference: “Land-locked countries with potentially large resources, such as Turkmenistan, need to move expeditiously to capture market opportunities since their competitors are not idle.”

Although he wasn’t specific, Mr Rosenblum appeared to be saying that Western companies with their expertise and know-how would be able to help Turkmenistan speed up development of its hydro-carbon sector.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Kazakhstan’s Kazmunaigas and Vitol strike $3b futures deal

DEC. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazmunaigas, Kazakhstan’s state-owned energy company, said it reached an agreement with international oil trader Vitol for the forward sale of crude oil for up to $3b, a deal that the debt-ridden Kazakh producer needs to maintain financial stability during a period of low oil prices.

Vitol will buy oil from Kazmunaigas’ share of oil produced at the Tengiz field in western Kazakhstan and then pumped by the CPC pipeline around the northern tip of the Caspian Sea to Novorossiysk in Russia.

Kazmunaigas, commonly known as KMG, will receive advance payments in the short term.

“It is expected that KMG will be able to draw the first tranche within 2-4 months,” the company said in a statement.

Neither company disclosed the amount of oil that will be traded and the duration of the contract, but a Bulletin calculation showed that the deal could range between 3 and 5 years, depending on how much of the 2-3m tonnes of oil KMG exports each year from Tengiz Vitol will buy and how big the discount is.

By committing to the sale of futures, Kazmunaigas earnsmuch needed cash in the short term to cover its outstanding debts. But there will be a reasonable discount which will manifest itself over the next few years.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Azerbaijani company wants partners for Greek distributor deal

DEC. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s energy company, has to sell a 17% stake in the Greek gas distributor DESFA by the end of June 2016 to comply with EU ownership regulations, media quoted the Greek authorities as saying.SOCAR bought a 66% stake in DESFA in 2013 although the European Commission later said that under 2009 rules it had to bring its stake in DESFA down to 49%. Belgium’s Fluxys and Spain’s Enagas have submitted a joint offer for the stake. Italy’s Snam has also said it would be interested in buying it.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Kazakhstan opens $1.2b gas pipeline

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Kaztransgas, the state- owned pipeline monopoly, opened a third pipeline pumping gas to China, highlighting Chinese dominance over Central Asia’s energy resources.

Line C will bring the total capacity of the Kazakhstan-China pipeline to 55b cubic metres of gas a year. The Kazakhstan-China pipeline is part of

the 1,300km pipeline network that spans Central Asia. Its main purpose is to pump Turkmen gas to China, although Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan also contribute.

The pipeline cost $1.2b to build and was described by Kaztransgas as the biggest infrastructure project in independent Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Lukoil ups Ubekistan’s production

DEC. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian oil company Lukoil said it increased both investment and production in Uzbekistan’s gas sector in the first nine months of 2015. Investment grew by 38% to $759m, compared to last year. Production rose to 4.7b cubic metres, up 26% from around 3.7b cubic metres last year. Lukoil is one of Uzbekistan’s biggest investors. Uzbekistan has said it wants to increase its gas production.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Kazakhstan-focused Nostrum slashes revenues

NOV. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In its financial results for the first nine months of the year, Kazakhstan- focused Nostrum Oil & Gas said revenues were down 40% to $374.8m. Low oil prices and back taxes dented Nostrum’s financial position. Nostrum is investing around $500m in the GTU3 gas treatment facility, which will increase production to 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) by 2017 from around 40,000boepd.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

New gas pipeline opened in Kazakhstan

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s pipeline monopoly Kaztransgas launched the $3.5b Beineu- Bozoi-Shymkent gas pipeline, five months early. The pipeline is important because it pumps gas from fields in the north-west to urban centres in the south.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)