Tag Archives: hydrocarbons

Azerbaijani oil field bloc output falls again

MAY 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP’s Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil field bloc in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea produced 581,000 barrels of oil per day in the first three months of the year, it said in a statement. This is a significant drop compared to the year before when output was recorded at 651,000 barrels per day. BP has been under pressure from the Azerbaijani authorities to boost production at SCG, the country’s main oil producers and the latest figures will likely irritate Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

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(News report from Issue No. 328, published on May 12 2017)

Kazakhstan restarts oil exports via BTC

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MAY 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan has started shipping oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline for the first time since mid-2015, media reported quoting the Azerbaijani energy ministry, an indication that the country’s oil production has picked up. BTC is considered an important part of the region’s energy infrastructure as it pushes oil from the Caspian Sea to Turkey. Kazakhstan had cut its oil production as prices fell. The Azerbaijani energy ministry said that 90,000 tonnes of oil from Kazakhstan have been pumped through BTC already this year.

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(News report from Issue No. 328, published on May 12 2017)

Iran says it is ready to sue Turkmenistan over gas cuts

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MAY 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iranian officials said they were ready to sue Turkmenistan in an international arbitration court for cutting gas supplies this winter, ramping up tension between the neighbours.

The announcement highlights just how far relations between Iran and Turkmenistan have splintered since Turkmen officials said last year that Iran hadn’t paid a $1.8b bill for gas delivered in 2007 and 2008.

In a statement quoted by Iranian media, Hamid Reza Araqi, managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), said Turkmenistan had failed its commitments.

“The price of gas, the damage they inflicted on Iran in winter by cutting off gas supplies, and the quality of gas delivered to Iran are three cases claimed by Iran,” he was quoted as saying. “Iran’s documents are ready to be submitted to the International Court of Arbitration.”

To some extent the row shows the strain an economic downturn has put countries and their leaders under. Before Turkmen officials accused Iran of reneging on bills, relations had been improving every month. As well as gas supplies Turkmen electricity was being imported, political links had been strengthened and there was talk of Iran providing Turkmenistan with access to the Persian Gulf through a swap system.

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(News report from Issue No. 328, published on May 12 2017)

Kazakhstan expects $180m from Kashagan

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APRIL 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk Kazyna and its state-run energy company Kazmunaigas will receive $180m from the Kashagan oil project in 2017, media reported, quoting Dauren Karabayev, a vice president at Kazmunaigas. The Kazakh economy has been flatlining since mid-2014 when oil prices collapsed. Kashagan, in the Caspian Sea, finally came onstream at the end of last year after a delay of three years.

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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)

Uzbekistan starts building oil refinery

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APRIL 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan started construction of a $2.2b oil refinery near the border with Kazakhstan, a project that will boost jobs and should also plug a yawning fuel supply gap.

The Jizzakh refinery will be Uzbekistan’s fourth and will produce more than 3.7m tonnes of gasoline, more than 700,000 tonnes of jet fuel and about 300,000 tonnes of other oil products annually, according to officials.

It will receive unrefined oil through a yet-to-be-built pipeline from Kazakhstan, helping to cement improving bilateral relations.

The refinery is the most high- profile project initiated under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbek leader since September last year. He has made boosting jobs and improving bilateral relations with Uzbekistan’s neighbours his core policy initiatives.

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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)

UzGazOil workers complain about salaries

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MAY 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Employees at Uzbekistan’s state- owned UzGasOil network of petrol stations have not been paid their salaries, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website reported. It said that in a rare show of worker defiance in Uzbekistan, the UzGasOil employees had complained directly to the management about their unpaid salaries. RFE/RL quoted one worker saying that he was owed about $125 for two months work. RFE/RL contacted UzGasOil, rebranded from Uzbekneftegaz this year, who denied that there was a problem. In Uzbekistan, protests by workers against company management are virtually unheard of.

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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)

Pipeline from Turkmenistan to India to complete by 2020

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MAY 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Pakistan’s ministry of natural resources said that it expected the TAPI gas pipeline running from Turkmenistan to northern India to be completed on schedule in 2020. The pipeline is considered vital for Turkmenistan’s economy and also for consumers in Pakistan and India who are hungry for more power.

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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)

Azerbaijan-Georgia gas corridor to complete on time

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MAY 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an interview with Reuters, BP’s Georgia country manager, Chris Schlueter said that the middle section of the $40b Southern Gas Corridor would be completed on time in 2018. This is important because it indicates that the entire pipeline system, running from Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea coast across Georgia and Turkey into the Balkans and across the Aegean Sea to Italy may be operational by 2020 as promised. The Southern Gas Corridor is supposed to reduce Europe’s reliance on gas supplies from Russia and also boost Azerbaijan’s economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)

Azerbaijan-focused Abershon to produce by 2019

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APRIL 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Abershon field in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea, operated by France’s Total, could start gas production in late 2019 or early 2020, an official at Azerbaijan’s state energy company Socar said. Aberson is considered to be a potentially major gas producer for Azerbaijan which is heavily reliant on the energy sector for revenue. The field was discovered in 2011.

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(News report from Issue No. 326, published on April 28 2017)

Azerbaijani state oil fund rises

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APRIL 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state oil fund Sofaz is worth £33.2b, officials said, a slight increase from $33.147 at the beginning of the year. This figure is important because Azerbaijan has been borrowing cash from Sofaz to top up its state budget which has shrunk with falling oil prices.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)