SEP. 9 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a $1b deal, ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of India’s state-owned energy company ONGC, bought nearly 3% of the Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli (ACG) group of oil fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea and a similar size stake in the Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 104, published on Sep. 14 2012)
AUG. 16 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Upgrade work to extend the life-span of oil fields operated by the BP-lead Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) caused production to drop by 11.6% to a five year low in the first half of 2012, media quoted company officials as saying. AIOC accounts for most of Azerbaijan’s oil production.
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(News report from Issue No. 101, published on Aug. 17 2012)
AUG. 9 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps a sign that Azerbaijan’s oil production is slowing, the pipeline that pumps oil from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, BTC, recorded a 10% drop in volumes for the year to end-July, Bloomberg reported. Oil has been vital for Azerbaijan’s recent economic boom.
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(News report from Issue No. 100, published on Aug. 10 2012)
AUG. 9 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – BP, Total and Socar, the Azerbaijani state energy company, agreed to fund a pipeline that will link with an energy transit route in the South Caucasus and pump gas across Albania and Greece to Italy. The pipeline, dubbed TAP, is part of an alternative gas route to the EU-backed Nabucco project.
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(News report from Issue No. 100, published on Aug. 10 2012)
JULY 28 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen officials will travel to Singapore, New York and London in September and October to try and tempt potential investors into sponsoring a proposed gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan, media reported. The estimated cost of the proposed pipeline, dubbed TAPI, is around $10b.
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(News report from Issue No. 099, published on Aug. 3 2012)
JULY 12/13 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has agreed to help finance and build Tajikistan’s first oil refinery, media reported after talks between Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon and Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev in Baku. Tajikistan imports all its oil products, 90% of them from Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 097, published on July 20 2012)
JULY 9 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – With the announcement of the TANAP pipeline, Europe is likely to settle for less ambitious volumes of gas to push through the South Caucasus and Turkey to its cities.
This has forced Turkmenistan to turn east once more for new markets for its vast gas reserves.
Turkmenistan has already carved out a niche as one of Asia’s emerging main gas suppliers. China, Iran, the Gulf states and Afghanistan, Pakistan and India have all signed deals over the past 18 months to boost gas imports from Turkmenistan.
Now Bangladesh can, almost, be added to the list. Bangladesh wants to convert the so-called TAPI pipeline into TAPIB, media reported.
The Asian Development Bank, which is funding construction of the TAPI pipeline, has said it is still waiting for a formal application from Bangladesh but if, and when, it does come, it seems like an obvious extension to an already ambitious project.
All this is likely to be music to the ears of Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. Since coming to power in 2007, he has overseen the boom in export markets for Turkmen gas.
Analysts estimate that over the next few years, Turkmenistan will produce 75b cubic metres of gas annually, nudging into the world’s top ten gas producers.
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(News report from Issue No. 096, published on July 13 2012)
JULY 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – French energy company Total confirmed huge gas reserves at the Absheron field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. Socar, Azerbaijan’s state energy company, and GDP Suez, another French company, are also shareholders in Absheron. Total said the field holds up to 300b cubic metres of gas, seven times larger than France’s annual gas consumption.
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(News report from Issue No. 095, published on July 6 2012)
JUNE 30 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen energy minister, Kakageldy Abdullayev, said Turkmenistan would pursue its claim to the disputed Kapaz oil field in the Caspian Sea with the UN, media reported. Azerbaijan also claims ownership of the field. The Caspian Sea littoral states have been locked in a long-running argument over ownership rights.
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(News report from Issue No. 095, published on July 6 2012)
JUNE 7 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Matt Bryza, the US’s former special envoy to the South Caucasus, has joined Turcas, a Turkish oil firm with close links to Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR, media reported. Last year US Senators declined to sanction Mr Bryza’s appointment as permanent US ambassador to Azerbaijan over worries he was too close to the Azerbaijani authorities.
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(News report from Issue No. 091, published on June 8 2012)