FEB. 24 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iraq’s oil ministry delayed the signing of a deal with Kazakhstan’s Kazmunaigas and South Korea’s KOGAS to develop the Akkas gas field in western Iraq. Reuters quoted the Iraqi oil minister saying that hesitation by provincial officials had delayed the deal.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 29, published on Feb. 28 2011)
FEB. 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Despite the rather turgid official photos, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev left observers in no doubt how important they viewed relations between China and Kazakhstan when they met in Beijing on Feb. 22.
According to Xinhua, China’s state news agency, Mr Hu told Mr Nazarbayev that his trip to Beijing was the first by a head of state since the Chinese New Year on Feb. 3.
Mr Nazarbayev went one better. He told Mr Hu this was his first overseas trip of 2011.
Away from the platitudes, the deals the two leaders struck underlined how quickly the Sino-Kazakh economic relationship had developed. Mr Nazarbayev returned from Beijing with investment from China worth billions of dollars for a wide range of projects.
Perhaps the most important was for uranium sales. Kazakhstan is one of the world’s biggest uranium producers while China is energy hungry and has said it wants to boost its nuclear energy capacity. According to media reports Kazakhstan pledged to feed China with 40% of its uranium needs over the next few years.
Also agreed was a $1.7b loan from China to Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, Chinese investment for a 1,050km high-speed rail link between Astana and Almaty and a $1b plan to modernise the oil refinery in Atyrau on the Caspian Sea — one of three in Kazakhstan.
According to Mr Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s bilateral trade with China reached $20b in 2010, up 45% from 2009.
It looks set to continue to rise.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 29, published on Feb. 28 2011)
FEB. 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia and Iran agreed to build an oil pipeline running 365km from Tabriz to Eraskh, media quoted the Armenian energy minister, Armen Movsisyan, as saying. The $100m pipeline will open in 2013. Mr Movsisyan said it was important to diversify Armenia’s energy supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 28, published on Feb. 21 2011)
FEB. 9 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The United States signed a fuel supply deal for its Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan which will split the lucrative contract 50:50 between a state company and the Gibraltar-registered Mina Corp. The company had been the sole supplier under the previous government, a deal criticised for its lack of transparency.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 27, published on Feb. 14 2011)
FEB. 7 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia is considering an IPO to sell off 25% of both its state oil and gas company and the company distributing electricity around the capital Tbilisi, Reuters quoted the Georgian energy minister, Alexander Khetaguri as saying. Georgia plans to use the cash to build hydroelectric power stations.
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(News report from Issue No. 26, published on Feb. 7 2011)
JAN. 26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Unconfirmed press reports say Irish police have detained former Kyrgyz energy minister Saparbek Balkibekov in Dublin. Kyrgyzstan is understood to have asked Ireland to extradite Balkibekov to stand trial for corruption and theft.
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(News report from Issue No. 25, published on Jan. 31 2011)
JAN. 31 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan has delayed approving plans for the second phase of the Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea because plans put forward by the Eni-led consortium developing it are too expensive, oil and gas minister Sauat Mynbayev said. Kashagan is due to start commercial production in 2012. The second phase would push oil production up to 1m barrels/day.
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(News report from Issue No. 25, published on Jan. 31 2011)
JAN. 12 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan signed a deal to supply Iran with gas for the next five years. A spokesman for SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state oil company, said that from Feb. 1 it would export 1b cubic metres of gas to neighbouring Iran in 2011. Over the last year, Iran has been steadily improving relations with Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 23, published on Jan. 17 2011)
JAN. 13/5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso visited Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to try to persuade them to supply gas to Europe through planned routes running from the Caspian Sea across the South Caucasus. EU officials said Azerbaijan had committed to supplying gas and that Turkmenistan had pledged closer cooperation in 2011.
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(News report from Issue No. 23, published on Jan. 17 2011)
JAN. 11 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov sacked the head of the country’s gas company, Dovlet Mommayev, after only 3 months in the job, media reported quoting state TV. Amanali Khanaliyev, previously head of building pipelines, is the new head of Turkmengaz.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 23, published on Jan. 17 2011)