DEC. 11 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — The leaders of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Indian energy minister struck a deal in Ashgabat to build a pipeline carrying Turkmen gas 1,700km across Taliban-held territory to India. The cost and timing of the so-called TAPI pipeline have yet to be agreed.
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(News report from Issue No. 19, published on Dec. 13 2010)
DEC. 6 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — India’s state-run Oil & Gas Corp. (ONGC) will take control of 25% of the Satpayev oil exploration block in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea by February 2011 in return for a $400m investment, news agencies quoted the Kazakh and Indian oil ministers as saying. Kazmunaigas will own 75% of the block.
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(News report from Issue No. 18, published on Dec. 6 2010)
DEC. 6 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s giant Caspian Sea oil field
Kashagan may start production at the end of 2012 slightly ahead of schedule, Kazakh oil minister Sauat Mynbayev said. Kashagan is the world’s biggest oil find in 40 years and key to Kazakhstan’s push to become a major global energy producer.
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(News report from Issue No. 18, published on Dec. 6 2010)
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NOV. 28 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad officially opened the final half of a 1,000km pipeline pumping gas from Turkmenistan to Iran. The pipeline doubles annual Turkmen gas exports to Iran to 20b cubic metres.
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(News report from Issue No. 17, published on Nov. 29 2010)
NOV. 23/24 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov flew to Qatar and signed bilateral agreements promising closer ties between the energy producing nations. This was Karimov’s first trip to Qatar. He has previously spoken about increasing cooperation
with energy producers in the Middle East.
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(News report from Issue No. 17, published on Nov. 29 2010)
NOV. 22 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Control of the Caspian Sea and its resources are worth arguing over.
It is the biggest inland body of water in the world, covering an area about the size of Germany, and dominates trade routes between Europe and Asia. The Caspian Sea also holds vast stocks of sturgeon which produce the lucrative caviar. Most tantalising, though, is the oil potential.
Its reserves are difficult to estimate but the US Energy Information Administration puts them at between 17b and 44b barrels of oil — equivalent to the oil reserves of Qatar at the bottom end of the scale and to the United States at the upper end.
The five states which border the Caspian Sea — Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan — have argued over its ownership for years. On Nov. 18 in Baku the heads of these countries met for their third summit in eight years on how to divide the Caspian Sea and its treasures between them. Once again much was promised but little agreed.
Writing for Asia Times Online, Robert Cutler, a Canada-based academic, commented: “While the framework for a relatively minor security cooperation agreement was endorsed, the summit’s real significance lay in the agreements not reached and documents not signed.”
Before 1991, ownership of the Caspian Sea was less complex as it only needed an agreement between the Soviet Union and Iran. Now, with five countries, it’s far more difficult. Add into the mix the Caspian Sea’s emergence as an energy transit route to Europe and the debates heat up.
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)
NOV. 19 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – A judge in the United States dismissed charges of corruption and fraud against businessman James Giffen, who had been accused of giving $84m in bribes to Kazakh officials in exchange for oil concessions during the 1990s. Prosecutors linked senior members of the Kazakh government, including President Nursultan Nazarbayev, to the case.
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)
NOV. 18 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – The leaders of the five countries that border the Caspian Sea met for a summit in Baku to discuss the sea’s disputed ownership but they failed to sign any major agreements. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had arrived on Nov.17 for separate bilateral talks with Azerbaijan’s President.
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)
NOV. 19 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan accused Agip, a unit of Italian energy company Eni, of a $110m fraud at the Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea by inflating development costs. Eni’s Agip declined to comment. It is the leader of the consortium developing Kashagan, Kazakhstan’s biggest oil field.
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)
NOV. 19 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has won the support of neighbouring countries to build a gas pipeline under the Caspian Sea, said deputy PM Baymyrad Khozhamuhamedov. He also said Turkmenistan would be able to supply the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline project with gas.
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)