OCT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov once again said he wanted work to begin on building a gas pipeline running across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India by 2015, media reported. The so-called TAPI pipeline is a major project designed to feed gas to India and Pakistan and give economic security to Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
OCT. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan said it wants to increase its client base for gas supplies, media reported. Turkmenistan’s president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said he had instructed officials to seek out more clients. Turkmenistan has transformed itself from recluse to major energy hub over the past decade.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
OCT. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Norwegian energy company Statoil sold its final 15.5% stake in the Shah Deniz oil field in the Azerbaijani Caspian Sea to Malaysia’s Petronas for $2.25b.
Officially, Statoil said the sale was part of a worldwide reorganisation. For the partners in Shah Deniz, though, the sale represents yet another major shake-up of one of Azerbaijan’s biggest energy projects.
The sale is also another indicator that Western energy companies are looking to reign in investments that require large capital commitments.
In May, Statoil sold a 10% stake in Shah Deniz to BP and SOCAR and French energy company Total sold its 10% stake in the project to TPAO. For its part, Petronas has been looking to diversify its energy assets across the world.
The other shareholders in Shah Deniz are: BP (28.8% of the project); Turkey’s TPAO (19%); Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR (16.7%); Russia’s Lukoil (10%) and National Iranian Oil Company (10%).
Clearly the diverse nature of Shah Deniz’s stakeholders makes it a complex project. Azerbaijan is also staking much of its future riches on the success of the project and Europe is hoping to pump around a fifth of its gas from Shah Deniz over the next few years.
Statoil’s deal with Petronas also included selling its stakes in the South Caucasus pipeline. It kept, though, its 8.56% stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil field and also its 20% stake in the TAP pipeline that will pump gas from Azerbaijan to Europe.
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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. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Spanish natural gas provider Enagas bought a 16% stake in the TAP pipeline that will pump gas from the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea to central Europe.
The purchase of the shares, a 10% stake from France’s Total and a 6% stake from Germany’s E.ON underline how important European countries consider the project to be.
Belgium’s Fluxys also increased its stake to 19%. The other shareholders in TAP are BP, Norway’s Statoil and Azerbaijani energy company SOCAR all with 20% of the project. Swiss energy company Axpo also owns 5% of TAP.
Reuters quoted Kjetil Tungland, TAP’s managing director.
“The TAP joint venture has always been open to new strategic partners,” he said.
“Enagas … will help to enhance TAP’s strategic position as a truly European project that will transport a new source of gas to the continent’s energy markets.”
The pipeline is scheduled for completion in 2018. European countries consider it an essential piece of infrastructure development to diversify their gas deliveries away from Russia, through which most of its gas was being delivered.
The plan is for TAP to run 870km from the Shah Deniz II field in the Caspian Sea to the Turkey-Greece border. There it will connected to another pipeline called TANAP which will pump the gas through the Balkans and across to Italy. From Italy the gas can be re-distributed across Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Spanish natural gas provider Enagas bought a 16% stake in the TAP pipeline that will pump gas from the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea to central Europe.
The purchase of the shares, a 10% stake from France’s Total and a 6% stake from Germany’s E.ON underline how important European countries consider the project to be.
Belgium’s Fluxys also increased its stake to 19%. The other shareholders in TAP are BP, Norway’s Statoil and Azerbaijani energy company SOCAR all with 20% of the project. Swiss energy company Axpo also owns 5% of TAP.
Reuters quoted Kjetil Tungland, TAP’s managing director.
“The TAP joint venture has always been open to new strategic partners,” he said.
“Enagas … will help to enhance TAP’s strategic position as a truly European project that will transport a new source of gas to the continent’s energy markets.”
The pipeline is scheduled for completion in 2018. European countries consider it an essential piece of infrastructure development to diversify their gas deliveries away from Russia, through which most of its gas was being delivered.
The plan is for TAP to run 870km from the Shah Deniz II field in the Caspian Sea to the Turkey-Greece border. There it will connected to another pipeline called TANAP which will pump the gas through the Balkans and across to Italy. From Italy the gas can be re-distributed across Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Despite statements earlier this year to the contrary, Iran will increase gas exports from Turkmenistan to make up for a shortfall in its own production.
Reuters quoted the Shana Iranian news agency as quoting Hamid-Reza Araqi, Iran’s oil minister, as saying, that imports would rise in accordance to a long term contract between the two countries.
“Iran has a long-term contract with Turkmenistan, based on which the volume of gas exports increases,” he said.
Western sanctions aims at hampering Iran’s alleged development of its nuclear weapons programme have also slowed its gas production, mainly based in the south of the country. And so it has looked to neighbouring Turkmenistan to make up the shortfall. Over the past few years, Turkmenistan has supplied 90% of Iran’s gas imports.
News that Turkmenistan will further increase its gas exports to Iran will again cement its position as one of the region’s leading gas suppliers.
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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. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR is expected to complete the deal to buy the Greek state gas operator DESFA by the end of this month, SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev said. SOCAR agreed to buy a 66% stake in DESFA in 2013. The EU is currently considering it.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
SEPT. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Highlighting its break from Turkmen gas imports, Iran opened what it said was the largest liquefied natural gas storage depot in the world in the north of the country. Iran has said that it wants to reduce expensive gas imports from Turkmenistan, which has propelled itself into the top tier of world gas producers.
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(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)