MAY 28 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov sacked his energy minister, Bairamgeldy Nedirov, for “serious shortcomings”, media quoted the presidential office as saying. Mr Nedirov had served as energy minister since Aug. 2008. His dismissal on May 25 came two days after signing a gas deal with India and Pakistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 090, published on June 1 2012)
MAY 19 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – An Uzbek-South Korean joint venture said it had secured a $2.5b loan from a consortium of banks to build a gas plant in the northwest of the country. The planned gas plant at the Surgil field is considered an important part of Uzbekistan’s future energy policy and will create 1,000 jobs.
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(News report from Issue No. 089, published on May 25 2012)
MAY 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh government insisted a probe into corruption at Italian energy company ENI would not slow development of its Kashagan Caspian Sea oil field. ENI is the lead company in Kashagan, one of the biggest oil finds in the past 40 years. Last week Italian prosecutors opened an investigation into ENI’s foreign deals.
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(News report from Issue No. 088, published on May 18 2012)
MAY 9 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Chzhunnen Oil Exploration, a Chinese company, said it had found oil in southern Kyrgyzstan, raising hopes of developing a small but important energy industry. Soon after Chzhunnen said it had produced a test barrel of oil at a well, Kyrgyz leaders pledged support for further investment.
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(News report from Issue No. 087, published on May 11 2012)
MAY 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Sources inside the Turkmen energy ministry told the AP news agency that Turkmenistan would sign a deal with Afghanistan, Pakistan and India later this month on gas prices for the so-called TAPI pipeline. The planned pipeline, due to run from Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan, is seen as an important economic step for the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 087, published on May 11 2012)
APRIL 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR and BP agreed an important engineering and design step towards the 2nd phase development of the Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea. Shah Deniz’s development is vital both for the expansion of Azerbaijan’s energy sector and for hitting European gas demand.
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(News report from Issue No. 084, published on April 20 2012)
APRIL 9 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Socar, Azerbaijan’s state oil company, said its oil exports through the pipeline running from Baku to Ceyhan in Turkey (BTC) dropped 7.8% in Q1 2012 compared to Q1 2011. Socar gave no reason for the oil output drop through BTC, an important energy route to Europe. In 2011 Azerbaijan’s oil production fell by 10%.
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(News report from Issue No. 083, published on April 13 2012)
APRIL 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan started pumping gas to China under an agreement signed in 2010. The deal continues to cement China’s dominance over Central Asia’s energy reserves. Uzbekistan has already had to divert gas from Tajikistan to meet its contract with China.
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(News report from Issue No. 082, published on April 6 2012)
MARCH 29 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkish energy minister, Metin Kilci, said Turkey and Azerbaijan might agree a deal in April to build a gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea, media quoted Reuters as reporting. A deal to build the so-called Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) would please European countries which have been pushing for a new energy route from the Caspian to reduce their reliance on Russian gas supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 081, published on March 30 2012)
MARCH 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – BP will boost investment in the Chirag, Azeri and Guneshli oilfields in the Caspian Sea to $3.2b this year, up from $2.6b in 2011. It also said that total investment in the Shah Deniz gas field, which BP operates with Statoil and Azerbaijani state energy company Socar, will nearly double to $1.55b.
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(News report from Issue No. 080, published on March 8 2012)