Tag Archives: gas

Output falls, says Kazakh oil and gas producer

FEB. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Production at Kazakhstan’s largest oil and gas producer, Karachaganak, fell by 1.4% in 2016, compared to 2015, to 139.7m barrels of oil equivalent, the consortium operating the project said. This drop highlights a general decrease in output by Kazakh oil and gas producers during a prolonged period of low prices. Projects such as Karachaganak are vital for Kazakhstan’s economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Kazakhstan-focused Nostrum hits 2016 targets

JAN. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In its full year results, Nostrum Oil & Gas, which focuses on Kazakhstan said that it had just beaten its expected output with an average daily output of 40,351/barrels of oil equivalent (boe) compared to an anticipated 40,000 boe. It said that the final quarter of the year had been the best with 44,708 boe.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

CPC says to expand in Kazakhstan

JAN. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Caspian Pipeline Consortium plans to invest $150m in 2017 in expanding the capacity of the pipeline that pumps oil from western Kazakhstan around the northern tip of the Caspian Sea to Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, its general director Nikolay Gorban told media. The expansion plan will boost the pipeline’s capacity to 67m tonnes per year, up from 52m tonnes. This is important because CPC is a key export route for Kazakhstan and especially for its important Tengiz field.

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(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Gazprom to buy Kazakh gas

JAN. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s Gazprom will buy 12.8b cubic metres of gas from Kazakhstan in 2017 continuing its strategy of preferring Kazakh gas suppliers over other regional companies. Kazmunaigas has boosted its cooperation with Gazprom over the past few years while other state companies linked to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have lost ground.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Georgia’s difficult gas deal with Russia

JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — >> Why are people getting so upset about this new gas deal between Georgia and Russia?

>> After a couple of rounds of negotiations in Geneva, Georgian energy minister Kakha Kaladze returned to Tbilisi heralding a new gas deal which he said he had negotiated with Russia that was better than the previous arrangement. The new arrangement returned to a monetised price that Georgia would pay Russia for gas rather than, under the old deal, take a 10% cut of the volume that Russia sends to Armenia.

>> Right. But why would Georgia want to start paying for gas rather than just take a slice of the transit volumes?

>> That’s exactly the point. Kaladze returned from Geneva heralding the new deal as a victory for Georgia over Russia but it could be more of an own goal. Certainly Margvelashvili was immediately critical of the deal. He may have been playing politics, he has fallen out with his former colleagues in the Georgian Dream coalition and often sounds like an independent politician, but his concerns have been parroted by others too.

>> Go on. What are the details?

>> Kaladze was coy with the details of the deal and exactly how much Georgia would now have to pay Russia for gas but a think-tank called World Experience for Georgia (WEG) said that it would now have to pay $185 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas which is more than Armenia and Germany pay for their gas.

>> So what have the Georgian energy ministry and Kaladze said?

>> Surprisingly little, other than back Kaladze’s statement that the price negotiated was a good one. And this secrecy could be part of the problem. They have said that the actual price negotiated is a commercial secret, a statement that hasn’t gone down well.

>> But there must be some upside put forward by the government other than the price.

>> The deal does give Georgia more flexibility about where it sources its gas. It is likely that Azerbaijan’s Socar will be the big winner here with more gas being sourced from them.

>> And Kaladze? What has he said?

>> He’s come out fighting as he knows that his political reputation is on the line. Without being any more specific on the pricing structure agreed with Russia, he accused Pres. Margvelashvili of being unpatriotic. This row is likely to run and run and may have more far reaching political implications.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Turkmenistan continues gas bill negotiations with Iran

JAN. 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan said that it was prepared to enter negotiations with Iran over a disputed gas bill of $1.8b, although it still retains the right to take the dispute to an international court. Turkmenistan cut off gas supplies to Iran last month after accusing it of not paying debts it said had built up from 2007/8. The row has surprised observers who have watched Turkmenistan-Iran relations improve.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Eriell buys Uzbek subsidiary

JAN. 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Eriell GmbH, an Austria-registered company whose biggest shareholder is Gazprombank, has bought a 51% stake in Sarbon-Neftegaz from the state-owned Uzbekenergo, the Tashkent stock exchange reported. The Italian-language agcnews.eu website said that Eriell had paid $3.94m for the stake. Sarbon-Neftegaz provides transport services to oil and gas companies in Uzbekistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Turkmen president sacks energy minister

JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov fired Ashirguly Begliyev as head of the state-run Turkmengaz and replaced him with his deputy, Maksat Babayev. No reason was given for the sacking, although Mr Berdymukhamedov likes to rotate his key officials, possibly to ensure that noone builds up enough powerful enough to be able to challenge him.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Georgia president criticises new gas deal

TBILISI, JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili criticised a high-profile gas deal struck with Russia by energy minister Kakha Kaladze as a threat to national security, exposing a deep fissure in Georgia’s politics.

Commenting on a new agreement that will see Russia pay to transport gas across Georgia to Armenia, instead of giving Georgia 10% of the volume on a barter arrangement, Mr Margvelashvili’s official spokesperson, Eka Mishveladze, said Mr Kaladze was playing a high-risk game.

“The issue of Gazprom is more than just a business agreement, this is security, foreign policy and geopolitics first and energy and economy after that,” she said.

Although elected on a Georgian Dream ticket, Mr Margvelashvili has increasingly distanced himself from his former colleagues, preferring to present himself as an independent voice. Georgia is set for a presidential election in 2018.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Georgia-based Zenith lists on LSE, raises $.2.77m

TBILISI, JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Calgary-based Zenith Energy completed a share listing on the London Stock Exchange, raising £2.3m ($2.77m) to fund the debt repayment and exploration costs at its oil and gas fields in Azerbaijan, Italy and Argentina.

Zenith Energy signed a production sharing agreement with Azerbaijan’s state-owned Socar in March 2016 to jointly develop the Muradkhanli, Jafarli and Zardab oil producing sites, 240km inland from Baku. They are the biggest onshore oil fields in Azerbaijan and had produced up to 9,000 barrels of oil a day at their peak during the Soviet Union. They now produce around 300 barrels a day.

At the time of the deal Zenith’s CEO, Andrea Cattaneo, said that new techniques and infrastructure investment could reboot the fields and boost production.

Now Zenith has raised more cash to help pay for this exploration.

Commenting on the listing on the London Stock Exchange, Mr Cattaneo said: “We believe that the Company’s listing on the Official List will provide a supportive platform to help us achieve our ambitious growth objectives.”

Zenith Aran Oil Company was the Virgin Islands-registered company set up Zenith Energy to push the Azerbaijani projects forward.

Zenith’s shares in London started trading at 7p but moved to over 10p.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)