NOV. 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Islamabad, Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov agreed a deal with Pakistan for the price of gas for a proposed pipeline running from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan, Pakistan and on to India, Turkmenistan’s state newspaper reported. The deal is seen as vital for pushing the so-called TAPI pipeline forward.
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(News report from Issue No. 65, published on Nov. 16 2011)
NOV. 8 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s upgraded Kazakhstan’s sovereign debt rating to BBB+, one notch above Russia. The upgrade is a significant boost to Kazakhstan’s political and business elite. Standard & Poor’s highlighted Kazakhstan’s projected increase in oil exports.
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(News report from Issue No. 64, published on Nov. 8 2011)
NOV. 3 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a conference in Ashgabat, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said he supported building a pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Europe, media reported. Mr Berdymukhamedov’s statement is a boost for the EU-back Nabucco pipeline which wants to secure gas from Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 64, published on Nov. 8 2011)
OCT. 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – After two years of negotiations, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a deal which will allow gas from the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea to flow to Europe through the Turkish pipeline system. The deal will reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian gas and will open up the so-called southern energy corridor.
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(News report from Issue No. 63, published on Nov. 1 2011)
OCT. 26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh independent internet TV channel Stan TV said four men armed with baseball bats and a gun attacked two of its journalists in western Kazakhstan. The journalists had been reporting on the stand-off between oil workers and a subsidiary of the state oil and gas company Kazmunaigas.
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(News report from Issue No. 63, published on Nov. 1 2011)
OCT. 13 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Continuing the EU’s diplomatic drive to win Turkmenistan’s support for its proposed Nabucco pipeline project, Austrian President Heinz Fischer visited Ashgabat. He hinted the EU would pay more than Russia or China for Turkmen gas that Nabucco considers essential for its success.
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(News report from Issue No. 61, published on Oct. 18 2011)
OCT. 11 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Auditors confirmed that Turkmenistan holds the world’s second largest gas field, cementing its place as a global energy supplier. The South Yolotan field holds between 13 trillion and 21 trillion cubic metres of gas, second only to Iran’s South Pars.
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(News report from Issue No. 60, published on Oct. 11 2011)
OCT. 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – KMG EP, the London-traded unit of Kazakh state oil and gas company Kazmunaigas, downgraded its oil production forecast for 2011 again because of strikes and powers cuts at fields in the west of Kazakhstan. It said it would miss its initial 2011 goal by 8.4% now. In August, KMG EP said production would be 6% below the initial forecast.
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(News report from Issue No. 60, published on Oct. 11 2011)
OCT. 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Timur Kulibayev, head of the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, said Kazakhstan would pay up to $1b for a 10% stake in the oil and gas project Karachaganak. His statement raised hopes that the state and the Karachaganak investors were nearing an end to their long-running dispute.
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(News report from Issue No. 60, published on Oct. 11 2011)
OCT. 4 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A deal will be signed by 2012 on the size of the stake Kazmunaigas will take in the Karachaganak gas field, the head of BG in Central Asia, Chris Finlayson, told the Kazenergy Forum in Astana. BG is part of the consortium developing Karachaganak, the only major energy project in Kazakhstan the government is not involved in.
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(News report from Issue No. 59, published on Oct. 4 2011)