OCT. 4 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A deal will be signed by 2012 on the size of the stake Kazmunaigas will take in the Karachaganak gas field, the head of BG in Central Asia, Chris Finlayson, told the Kazenergy Forum in Astana. BG is part of the consortium developing Karachaganak, the only major energy project in Kazakhstan the government is not involved in.
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(News report from Issue No. 59, published on Oct. 4 2011)
SEPT. 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan will buy gas from Kazakhstan at half the price it had been paying Uzbekistan, media quoted Kyrgyz acting deputy PM Omurbek Babanov as saying. In return, Kyrgyzstan has agreed to increase electricity supplies to southern Kazakhstan. There has been constant friction between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan over gas and water supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 59, published on Oct. 4 2011)
OCT. 3 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The three groups developing competing pipeline projects from the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea to Europe submitted their final bids to buy gas from the giant Shah Deniz field, the Azerbaijani government said. Winning the bid is essential for the projects, which includes the ambitious Nabucco pipeline.
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(News report from Issue No. 59, published on Oct. 4 2011)
SEPT. 26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – BP has proposed building another pipeline from the Caspian Sea to central Europe, media reported, underlining the South Caucasus importance as an energy corridor. There are already three different plans to build pipelines along a similar route — the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline, the Trans-Adriatic pipeline and the IGI Poseidon.
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(News report from Issue No. 58, published on Sept. 27 2011)
SEPT. 13/16 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Both Russia and Iran released statements opposing the EU’s move to negotiate a final deal with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan for gas to fill its Nabucco pipeline running from the Caspian Sea to central Europe. The EU considers Nabucco as vital to its future energy strategy.
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(News report from Issue No. 57, published on Sept. 19 2011)
SEPT. 19 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Trade between Armenia and Iran has increased by 40% recently, Iran’s ambassador in Yerevan said according to local media. Iran has been looking to increase military and economic relations. Iran mainly exports gas to Armenia and imports power from Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 57, published on Sept. 19 2011)
SEPT. 12 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Looking for an alternative gas supplier to Russia, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych flew to Ashgabat to meet Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. Both countries have argued with Russia over gas prices. China, Russia, the EU, India and Pakistan are all competing for access to Turkmenistan’s gas supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 56, published on Sept. 12 2011)
SEPT. 7 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian state energy company Gazprom will invest $100m looking for hydrocarbons in Kyrgyzstan, Alexey Miller, the company’s CEO, said. The investment is an important financial boost for Kyrgyzstan and also pushes the country further towards Russia, a path it has pursued actively in the last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 56, published on Sept. 12 2011)
SEPT. 9 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – French energy company Total said it had found a major new gas field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. In a statement Marc Blaizot, Total’s exploration VP, said: “This discovery could be very significant in terms of resources.” The discovery was made at the Absheron gas field.
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(News report from Issue No. 56, published on Sept. 12 2011)
SEPT. 9 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EU is itching to sign a final deal with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan for gas supplies to its proposed Nabucco pipeline project.
Nabucco is at the heart of the EU’s future energy policy. It wants to reduce its dependency on Russia for gas supplies and instead develop a pipeline network from the Caspian Sea, across the South Caucasus to the centre of Europe.
At its core, the plan relies on gas from Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan but despite years of lobbying they are still considering their options and there is still no final deal.
Now, though, the EU appears to mean business. On Sept. 12 2011, the EU said it wanted to negotiate a final treaty as a united bloc with both Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on filling Nabucco which aims to have a capacity of 31b cubic metres/year, one of the biggest in the world.
Azerbaijan has already said it would supply gas and Turkmenistan has hinted that it would but the EU needs to know just how much and when in order to get its ambitious project off the ground.
Part of the delay has been over a pipeline running across the Caspian Sea bed, linking Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, a project that Russia has been against.
Symbolically, the EU’s decision to negotiate a final deal with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan as a united bloc is important too. This is the first time the 27 nation group has attempted to negotiate an energy deal together — again underlining the importance it places on Nabucco.
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(News report from Issue No. 56, published on Sept. 12 2011)