FEB. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR said that it was expanding its pipeline network in Georgia by 750km. This expansion, the company said, would boost its customer base by 22,000. SOCAR currently operates 1,179km of gas pipeline in Georgia and has 37,500 subscribers.
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(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)
FEB. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A chastised BP said oil output at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea fell last year by nearly 2%. ACG has been vital to Azerbaijan’s energy-powered boom and BP has been under pressure to reverse the decline.
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(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)
FEB. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s key oil field complex, Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG), produced nearly 2% less oil in 2013 than in 2012, BP said.
ACG forms the backbone of Azerbaijan’s oil output and, although gas is becoming increasingly important, it is still vital to the national economy. In other words, BP’s figures are bad news.
It said that output at ACG dropped to 32.2m tonnes last year from 32.9m tonnes in 2012. In 2010, ACG had produced 40.6m tonnes of oil — nearly 25% more than it did in 2013.
This is doubly galling because Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev had personally told BP to stop the output drop. In response BP committed millions on updating infrastructure and also said that they would replace management.
This had appeared to have made the difference and BP even said that the decline had been stemmed. That, though, now appears premature. There is a slight plus side, though. BP said that although overall oil production at ACG fell last year, total oil and condensate production rose 0.4% to 43.5m tonnes. Condensate is a mixture of hydrocarbons.
BP also said that exports of barrels of oil had also actually risen from ACG to 286.2m from 283.9m, mostly through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
While Azerbaijan ramps up gas production, oil exports from ACG remain its main cash earner. With this in mind, BP has committed to spending another $2.1b on ACG this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)
FEB. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov visited Baghdad and said that Iraqi gas could possibly be exported to Europe through the so-called Southern Gas Corridor. Exporting Iraqi gas through Azerbaijan and its Southern Gas Corridor would require Turkish support.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
FEB. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan underlined its credentials as a regional energy transport lynchpin by offering to pump Iraqi gas to Europe through its pipeline network.
The offer came during a trip to Baghdad by Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov and underlines the importance of the so-called Southern Gas Corridor.
“The project is there, so if there are other countries that want to join the Southern Gas Corridor, including Iraq which has already expressed some interest in this project, we are ready to start negotiations,” the AFP news agency quoted Mr Mammadyarov as saying.
Azerbaijan is planning a massive boost to its gas extraction and pipeline infrastructure over the next few years to cope with a rise in gas exports. This means developing the Southern Gas Corridor and attracting partners to tap into it.
Iraq is, of course, trying to boost its gas exports since the end of the US-led war and has turned to Azerbaijan for help.
To make the deal go through, Azerbaijan needs the support of Turkey which is its partner in the Trans- Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP). Turkey, a NATO member and ally of the United States, is likely to agree.
All this underlines the importance of the Southern Gas Corridor running through the South Caucasus between the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea and Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
FEB. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Rovnag Abdullayev, the head of Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company SOCAR, said that demand for petrol in Azerbaijan was rising by 10-11% each year, media reported. This is important because is both serves as an economic indicator and also shows the need to boost refinery capacity in Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
FEB. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan temporarily reduced gas supplies to southern Kazakhstan leaving thousands of people in the south Kazakh city of Shymkent unable to heat their homes or cook, local media reported. Uzbek officials said pipeline repair work had caused the gas supply shortage. Central Asia’s energy system is complex and interconnected.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
JAN. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan is looking to secure a $650m loan from the Japan International Development Agency (JICA) to build a thermal power plant in the Ferghana Valley, media reported. Japan has been looking to boost its influence in Central Asia over the past few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
FEB. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The CEO of Italian energy company ENI, Paolo Scaroni, flew to Ashgabat to meet with Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. Mr Scaroni talked up the prospects of ENI exploring for oil and gas in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea. Most of Turkmenistan’s main gas projects are currently onshore.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
JAN. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Output from the Chevron-led oil project Tengizchevroil rose to 27.1m tonnes in 2013 from 24.2m tonnes in 2012, media reported. The Tengiz oil field is one of the biggest in Kazakhstan and, with the giant Caspian Sea Kashagan oil project stalling, the figures are good news for the Kazakh economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)