Tag Archives: hydrocarbons

Condor restarts oil wells in Kazakhstan

MARCH 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Canada-based Condor Petroleum resumed production at its oil wells in Kazakhstan in the second half of last year, it said in a full-year trading update, around 15 months after it cut production because oil prices had dropped too low to make it economical. Combined output from these two fields, Shoba and Taskuduk, is tiny at 588 barrels per day but it does indicate a renewed confidence in the Kazakh oil sector. Also in Kazakhstan, Condor has applied to extend its exploration licence over the Zharkamys exploration area which officially expired at the end of last year.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

LSE de-lists Kazakhstan focused oil producer

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MARCH 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tethys Petroleum the Canada- based, Kazakhstan-focused oil producer applied to de-list its shares from the London Stock Exchange. In a statement it said that it was too expensive and of little benefit to maintain its listing on both the London and Toronto Stock Exchanges. It will maintain its listing on Toronto’s Stock Exchange. The de-listing is planned for May 2.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Roxi wants merger in Kazakhstan

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MARCH 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — London-listed Roxi Petroleum said that it was trying to merge with Switzerland-based Baverstock to create a new company called Caspian Sunrise. Under the offered deal, Baverstock which already owns 10.45% of Roxi, would take control of an additional 41% stake in the new company. The new company’s main asset is the BNG contract area in Kazakhstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

BP appoints new region chief in Azerbaijan

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MARCH 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP, the dominant oil major in Azerbaijan, appointed Gary Jones, previously head of drilling as its new regional chief in Baku. Mr Jones’ predecessor, Gordon Birrell, has moved to London as COO for production. BP has been under pressure from Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev to boost the performance of the country’s main oil producing site, Azeri-Chirag- Gunashli (ACG), where output has dropped.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

China eyes up investment in Uzbek gas field

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MARCH 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — China is eyeing up a major investment in a gas field in southern Uzbekistan, media reported. The gas field is operated by the Uzbek-Chinese JV New Silk Road Oil & Gas Company, which is likely to contract China’s state-run CNPC to develop the site, funded by loans from China. China has been pushing hard to expand its project portfolio inside Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

Turkmen president travels to Qatar looking for investors

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MARCH 15 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov travelled to Qatar to try to charm its leaders into investing in Turkmenistan. The Turkmen economy is under pressure from sustained low oil and gas prices. In particular Qatar’s state news agency said that Mr Berdymukhamedov was looking for investment in the so-called TAPI gas pipeline that will run from gas fields in Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India, and also for investment in gas processing plants.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

Kazakhstan breaks OPEC limit

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MARCH 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan produced more oil in February than it was supposed to under an OPEC-led deal in December aimed at cutting global production, official data showed. It produced 1.718m barrels of oil/day in February, a 2% rise from its output in January. This is 38,000 barrels of oil/day than it had agreed to. Oil prices have fallen on news that oil stockpiles were higher than thought.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

Azerbaijan’s SOFAZ to invest in real estate

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MARCH 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state oil fund, SOFAZ, has investments worth $1.7b in foreign real estate deals, its press office told the Russian news agency Interfax. SOFAZ started investing in foreign property in 2012.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

Rio-Tinto is planning investments in Kazakhstan, says official

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MARCH 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — After a meeting with two senior officials from Rio Tinto at a trade fair in Toronto, Kazakhstan’s deputy minister for investment development, Timur Toktabayev, said that the mining company planned a couple of significant investments in the country. The British-Australian company is one of the biggest miners in the world but doesn’t currently have any projects in Kazakhstan. If it did start work on a project in Kazakhstan, it would give the country a major PR boost.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

Stock market: Brent

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MARCH 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Governments across the Central Asia/South Caucasus region will be nervously watching the Brent spot price as it slips back down to that all-important $50/barrel level. This is the psychological breakpoint.

If Brent oil dips below $50/barrel, national budgets, which have just been adjusted upwards, will have to be rethought. It broke through this level in mid-December and had hovered around the $55/barrel mark since then, before taking a downturn.

Oil prices had been pushed up in mid-December by a plan lead by producers to cut output. Data, though, this week showed that crude oil stocks held by the US government have risen, raising concerns that the fragile coalition patched together to contain global production was cracking. Data from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Nigeria also suggested that production was rising again.

Kazakhstan’s output estimate has also been increased. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Kazakhstan would produce 1.88m barrels of oil/day in 2017, compared to an earlier estimate of 1.86m barrels/day. In 2016, it produced 1.73m barrels of oil/day.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)