AUG. 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR wants to buy 5m tonnes of oil from Russia’s Rosneft, media quoted SOCAR chairman Rovnag Abdullayev as saying. The plan is to reverse the flow of the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline to pump the oil to Azerbaijan where it will either be refined or exported to Europe.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 149, published on Aug. 26 2013)
AUG. 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Petrol stations in Uzbekistan have restricted fuel sales to counter a reported shortage, media reported. The shortages haven’t been adequately explained but may be due to stockpiling. A website linked to the government said fuel prices, normally controlled, may soon shoot upwards.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 149, published on Aug. 26 2013)
AUG. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia have generally been cool for the past decade or so. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to Baku on Aug. 13 only served to underline this.
Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev, has looked to balance the interests of the country’s former master, Russia, with that of Europe, a major energy client. In previous years there has been talk of Russia buying up Azerbaijan’s gas supplies but this never materialised. Instead, Western energy firms have tightened their hold on Azerbaijan’s vast Caspian Sea energy supplies by buying up stakes in fields and building pipelines.
And despite rhetoric of improved ties between Moscow and Baku before a trip by Mr Putin, his first to the Azerbaijani capital in seven years, this general trajectory appears set.
Russia’s Rosneft had talked of an energy deal with SOCAR, the Azerbaijani state-owned energy company, but this never materialised. Sources told media outlets that a vague agreement had been signed but there were too many differences to commit to anything more meaningful.
These differences are varied. Some are personal, others strategic — last year Russia and Azerbaijan failed to agree on a lease extension for a Russian radar base — and others are commercial. Azerbaijan-Russia relations still need some mending.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 148, published on Aug. 19 2013)
AUG. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Rompetrol, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state-owned Kazmunaigas, will open 22 new petrol stations in Georgia by the end of 2014, media reported. This shows that Kazmunaigas is continuing to use Rompetrol to expand overseas and also that it believes that demand for petrol in Georgia is growing. Rompetrol already operates 70 petrol stations in Georgia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 148, published on Aug. 19 2013)
AUG. 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP stemmed an output drop at Azerbaijan’s Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil fields. In the first three months of 2013, ACG’s output was 662,000 barrels per day (bpd), rising to an average of 672,000bpd for the first half of the year, Reuters reported. ACG accounts for most of Azerbaijan’s oil production and is vital to its economy.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 147, published on Aug. 12 2013)
JULY 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR (20% stake), BP (20%) and Total (10%) joined the consortium developing the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) that will pump gas from the Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea to Italy, TAP said. The other members of the consortium are Statoil (20%), Fluxys (16%), E.ON (9%) and Axpo (5%).
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 146, published on Aug. 5 2013)
JULY 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s state gas company Gazprom completed its purchase of Kyrgyzgas, Kyrgyzstan’s gas distributor, for $1. Reuters quoted an anonymous source as saying that Gazprom will invest $600m updating Kyrgyzstan’s dilapidated gas infrastructure network. The deal also increases the Kremlin’s control over Kyrgyzstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 146, published on Aug. 5 2013)
AUG. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Romserv, part of the Rompetrol group, has won a $1b contract to modernise the refinery at Pavlodar in northern Kazakhstan, media reported. Kazakh state energy company Kazmunaigas bought a 75% stake in Rompetrol from Romania in 2007. The Pavlodar refinery was built in 1978 and is one of three in Kazakshtan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 146, published on Aug. 5 2013)
JULY 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekneftegaz, the Uzbek state energy company, has completed the first phase of an upgrade of the Mubarek Gas Processing Plant near Bukhara for $170m, Uzbekistan’s economy ministry said. Upgrading the 1971 gas processing plant is part of a wider investment project to modernise Uzbekistan’s infrastructure.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 145, published on July 29 2013)
JULY 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon has officially opened the first oil refinery in Tajikistan. The refinery has the capacity to process around 100,000 tonnes of oil a year. Russia, which had supplied Tajikistan with most of its oil products, will supply oil to the new refinery.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 144, published on July 22 2013)