JAN. 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s president, extended a state-of-emergency by 26 days in Zhanaozen, the town near the Caspian Sea at the centre of rioting last month that killed 16 people. The state-of-emergency had been set to end on Jan. 5. It now ends on Jan. 31 and falls over a parliamentary election planned for Jan. 15.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
DEC. 14 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – After two years of arguments, the energy companies (BG, Eni, Chevron and Lukoil) developing the Karachaganak gas project in Kazakhstan agreed a deal with the government to allow it a buy a stake in what is one of the country’s biggest energy developments. Essentially, Kazakhstan will pay $1b for a 10% stake.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 70, published on Dec. 22 2011)
DEC. 18 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Riots that have killed at least 16 people in western Kazakhstan are a major challenge to the Kazakh elite.
It was, to put it simply, the biggest display of public discontent with the country’s leaders since independence in 1991.
The authorities have since imposed a state of emergency in the town of Zhanaozen, the centre of the fighting, and flooded the region with military. Protests have now taken root in Aktau, a major nearby oil centre, although there are so far no reports of violence.
Their strategy is simple. They aim to stop protests spreading to cities outside the western region of Mangistau. If they can’t, then the outlook for 2012 is decidedly bumpy.
The authorities’ reaction to the riots was insightful. It felt Soviet. They simply crushed the former oil workers who had occupied the main square in Zhanaozen since mid-May.
The statements that followed were dripping in Soviet language. According to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the riots were started by selfish bandits and hooligans and the police had fired on them only when they feared for their lives. Reading it felt like 1986.
The bottom line is that in two consecutive civil disorder scenarios, police fired live rounds at protesters and killed several people.
Kazakhstan has prided itself on being an island of stability in volatile post-Soviet Central Asia. That image is looking distinctly battered.
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(News report from Issue No. 70, published on Dec. 22 2011)
DEC. 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s state-controlled energy company Gazprom agreed to roughly double the amount of gas it buys from Azerbaijan next year, Dow Jones news agency reported. The deal comes just as the Azerbaijanis are deciding which of three proposed gas transport routes to Europe to support.
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(News report from Issue No. 70, published on Dec. 22 2011)
DEC. 16 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Unprecedented riots broke out in Zhanaozan, west Kazakhstan, on Independence Day. At least 15 people died in fighting between ex-oil workers and police, who opened fire on protesters. The next day rioting spread to another town where police also shot at protesters killing one and injuring 11.
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(News report from Issue No. 70, published on Dec. 22 2011)
DEC. 9 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan and the foreign energy companies in the Karachaganak gas project (BG Group, Eni, Chevron and Lukoil) are close to resolving their long-running dispute, sources told Reuters. The sources said Kazakhstan would pay $1b for a 10% stake in exchange for dropping outstanding tax claims.
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(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)
DEC. 12 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan delayed backing one of three proposed projects to transport gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe. A decision had been expected by the end of 2011 but will now be made by March 2012, said the head of state oil energy company SOCAR, Rovnag Abdullayev. The three projects are Nabucco, Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TANAP) and Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy.
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(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)
NOV. 29 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Petrol prices in Tajikistan, a key price to watch for inflation and social tension, have risen sharply in the last few days, the state anti-monopoly agency told local media. The official said the suspension of a railway line in Uzbekistan because of a suspected bomb attack had hit supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 67, published on Dec. 1 2011)
NOV. 23 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – In Beijing, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao agreed to increases gas supplies to China from Turkmenistan by 60%. If all goes to plan, Turkmenistan will pump 65b cubic metres per year to China — around half its total annual gas needs.
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(News report from Issue No. 67, published on Dec. 1 2011)
NOV. 21 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s Gazprom accused Turkmenistan of overstating its gas reserves, triggering an angry response from Turkmen officials. Relations between the two countries have soured in the last couple of years due to rows over gas prices and Turkmenistan’s plans to diversify its gas export routes away from Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 66, published on Nov. 23 2011)