Tag Archives: hydrocarbons

Business comment: Tethys Woes

SEPT. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Guernsey-based oil company Tethys Petroleum never seems to catch a break.

This time last year it had just turned down a takeover offer from Amsterdam-based Nostrum Oil & Gas, also focused on Central Asia. But its financial outlook remained uncertain and it was still on the market for investors.

In the last months of 2015, the obscure Kazakh oil company Olisol came forward with a proposal to buy a large share of Tethys in exchange for much-needed cash.

This appeared to be the salvation that Tethys, buffeted by the slump in oil prices, needed. Tethys saluted the prospective deal as a life-saving opportunity.

But then hiccups in Kazakhstan and legal disputes with its partners in Tajikistan began churning up Tethys’ road to stability.

Now it faces legal prosecution in Kazakhstan and an arbitration in Tajikistan, which could turn ugly.

Plus repeated delays in securing funding from Olisol have put investors and managers under severe stress. This can easily be spotted by looking at the company’s stock price, which jumps and falls at every update.

In mid-August, its stock price nearly doubled in one day, reaching a four-month high, after Tethys announced that it had cleared an important regulatory hurdle in its recapitalisation efforts.

Now, Tethys’ stock price has settled back at 1.5p/share, an average it has kept in the second half of 2016, quite far down from the 64p it traded at in March 2012.

But those were the days of high oil prices and big spending. It’s a very different picture now.

With oil prices still hovering at around $45/barrel, the future looks as uncertain as ever for Tethys.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Kazakhstan’s Kashagan close to opening

SEPT. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s energy minister, Kanat Bozumbayev, said that production at the offshore oil field of Kashagan will resume on October 23, three years after its sudden interruption due to leaky pipes. Kashagan, discovered in 2000, is one of the largest finds in the oil industry’s recent history. Its reopening has been touted as crucial to give the Kazakh energy sector the boost it needs to move into the World’s premier division of producers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Russia to increase gas supplies from Uzbekistan

SEPT. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia has intensified talks to increase gas supplies from Uzbekistan, as it looks to buy more Central Asian gas. Alexei Miller, chairman of Russia’s gas company Gazprom, met with Alisher Sultanov, his counterpart from Uzbekistan’s state-owned energy company Uzbekneftegaz, in Moscow. Last year, Gazprom imported 6.4b cubic metres of Uzbek gas. Gazprom has been steadily increasing its dealings with Uzbekistan, once seen as the most awkward of the Central Asian states. The death this month of Uzbek Pres. Islam Karimov may also improve bilateral relations.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Azerbaijan’s SOCAR predicts oil prices

SEPT. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company, said it expects oil prices to stabilise at $40/barrel in 2017. Oil prices are crucial for Azerbaijan’s economy as it earns most of its income from oil exports. Earlier this year, after Brent prices fell below $30/barrel, Azerbaijan’s parliament formed its 2016 budget with a $25/barrel forecast.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Russia temporarily cuts gas supplies to Armenia

SEPT. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s gas distributor said that it will cut Russian gas supplies to Armenia for one week from Sept. 7 to carry out maintenance work on a section of the pipeline that crosses the country from the Caucasus. This is the second time in two months that the pipeline has been closed for maintenance and the cuts highlight the importance of Armenia’s negotiations with Iran to boost supplies from the south.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 295, published on Sept. 9 2016)

BP expects flat oil output in Azerbaijan

SEPT. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — British oil company BP said it expects flat oil output in Azerbaijan in 2017. BP also expects oil prices to hover around $40- 50/barrel for the next two years. In the first six months of 2016, production at Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG), Azerbaijan’s biggest oil producing field, production rose to 16m tonnes, 2% higher than in the same period in 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 295, published on Sept. 9 2016)

Kazmunaigas to stop takeover efforts on KMG EP

AUG. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — After a failed takeover offer, Kazmunaigas will not make a new offer for its London-traded subsidiary KMG EP, Sauat Mynbayev, managing director of Kazmunaigas said. Kazmunaigas, Kazakhstan’s state-owned energy company owns 63% of KMG EP, its exploration and production subsidiary. In July, Kazmunaigas had offered $9/GDR to KMG EP minority shareholders, but minority shareholders rejected the offer, dealing a blow to the Kazakh energy company’s prestige.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)

Azerbaijan’s oil shipments to Russia fall

SEPT. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company SOCAR shipped 729,000 tonnes of oil through Russia’s pipeline network in Jan.-Aug. 2016, a 22% fall compared to the same period last year. The fall is mostly due to a halt in shipments via the Baku-Novorossyisk pipeline in the Jan.-Feb. 2016, while the countries were negotiating a new deal. Monthly shipments are now back at the same levels as last year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)

Turkmen president flies to Berlin to talk gas deals

AUG. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov flew to Berlin, a rare visit to Europe, to discuss potential Turkmen gas imports with German leader Angela Merkel.

The visit was controversial because Turkmenistan, which holds the fourth largest gas reserves, is considered one of the most repressive regimes in the world. Human rights activists said that Mr Berdymukhamedov would consider the invitation to Berlin to be a PR coup which he would use in domestic propaganda campaigns.

And speaking alongside Ms Merkel, Mr Berdymukhamedov grinned and talked up Turkmenistan’s gas producing capabilities.

“We in Turkmenistan are interested in delivering our energy resources to the West,” he said.

A few hours earlier a Turkmen delegation had delivered a draft plan for setting up a trans-Caspian corridor to pump gas to Europe.

Ms Merkel said that as well as discussing gas supply deals with Turkmenistan she had also asked for Mr Berdymukhamedov to give access to Turkmenistan’s prisons to Western diplomats.

Human rights lobby groups have condemned Turkmenistan’s alleged practice of secretive imprisonments.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)

Georgian PM visits Azerbaijan

SEPT. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili paid an official visit to Azerbaijan to discuss partnership in joint infrastructure projects with President Ilham Aliyev. Mr Kvirikashvili was accompanied by energy minister Kakha Kaladze and deputy foreign minister Gigi Gigiadze. The parties discussed the latest developments in the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline network.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)