Tag Archives: hydrocarbons

Korea-Uzbekistan JV complete giant gas processing plant

OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uz-Kor Gas, a joint venture between South Korean and Uzbek companies, has finished building a $3.9b natural gas processing plant in Uzbekistan, a project that will improve commercial and diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Located in the Karakalpakstan region of north-western Uzbekistan, the Ustyurt Gas Chemical Complex will become the biggest petrochemical complex in Europe and Asia. Ustyurt includes a new gas field and a petrochemical plant. Its production will be mostly earmarked for the export market.

Companies from South Korea and Uzbekistan have been working on the project since 2006 through a joint- venture that includes Lotte Chemical, part of the Lotte Group, state-owned Korea Gas and Uzbekistan’s energy company Uzbekneftegaz.

Huh Soo-young, CEO of Lotte Chemical, said production would begin in 2016.

“From extracting liquefied natural gas in the upstream, to cracking and processing LNG into petrochemical products in the downstream, we have successfully built up a vertical integration system,” Mr Huh told the Korea Herald.

The plant will receive around 3.6mn tonnes of liquefied natural gas each year from a field in Surgil, around 100km away from the complex.

Lotte Chemical has predicted it will earn around 1tn won ($890mn) each year from the new project. Mr Huh said the complex would only be profitable as long as energy prices stay at current levels.

“As long as crude oil prices remain above $40, our petrochemical products based on low-cost ethane will remain competitive in the global market,” he said.

Uzbekistan and South Korea have been improving their commercial ties. In May, Uzbek president Islam Karimov used his visit foreign trip after winning re-election to travel to South Korea to close deals worth $7.7b.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

KazTransOil liquidates Georgian subsidiary

OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — After a lengthy legal spat, Kazakhstan’s oil pipeline company KazTransOil (KTO) liquidated Batumi Terminals Ltd, its subsidiary in Georgia. Earlier in March, a Georgian court seized Batumi Terminals’ assets on charges that it had abused its monopolistic position. The charges were eventually dropped.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Georgians protest against Gazprom

OCT. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Hundreds of people demonstrated in central Tbilisi against a potential deal with Gazprom to supply gas to Georgia. The demonstration was a response to a meeting last month between the Georgian government and Gazprom. Georgia and Russia fought a war in 2008 and relations are still strained.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Iran, China and Kazakhstan to build refinery

OCT. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iran and China are ready to help build Kazakhstan’s fourth oil refinery, Raymbek Amirzhanov, vice governor of the Mangistau region in north- western Kazakhstan, told media. Kazakhstan has repeatedly said it needs a fourth refinery to end its dependence on Russian petroleum products. Iran and China have said they will buy more oil from Kazakhstan through a swap system.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Uzbek-Korea gas completes plant

OCT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uz-Kor Gas, a joint venture between South Korean and Uzbek companies, has completed a $3.9b natural gas processing plant.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Stock market: Nostrum, Tethys, KAZ Minerals

OCT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil companies suffered from a fall in oil prices this week. The Brent index closed at $48/barrel on Friday, down 5% this week.

Nostrum Oil & Gas lost around 9% this week, recovering on Friday to end at 475p per share in London. Nostrum’s summer objective Tethys Petroleum continued its slump, reaching the lowest level in 2015 on Oct. 22, trading at 0.06 Canadian dollars per share in Toronto on Thursday, rebounding slightly to 0.07 Canadian dollars on Friday. Kazakhstan-focused Roxi Petroleum gained 2%, after it issued new shares earlier in October. Roxi closed at 9.63p on Friday.

Last week, the price of copper fell by 2% before recovering to $2.40 per lb. Britain-based miner KAZ Minerals was hit by the market crunch this week and recorded a 7% loss, closing at 127p in London on Friday.

The upside was represented by Centerra Gold, whose shares gained almost 9% despite slower gold production in Kyrgyzstan. The final price in Toronto was 8.28 Canadian dollars.

In the banking sector, Bank of Georgia rose by almost 7% this week to 214p. The stability of the lari currency kept the market optimistic.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

SP to exclude Kashagan from Kazakhstan’s economic forecasts

ALMATY, OCT. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said it would exclude Kashagan, Kazakhstan’s biggest oil field, from its Kazakh economic forecasts because its start-up date was unclear.

The news is a setback for NCOC, the consortium developing the Caspian sea field, which includes Eni, Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, CNPC, Inpex and Kazakhstan’s state-owned company Kazmunaigas.

Karen Vartapetov, S&P’s associate director, explained.

“The project has been repeatedly delayed. We are no longer taking this oilfield into account in the rating procedures,” she said.

Operations at Kashagan begun, briefly, in September 2013, eight years behind schedule. Two weeks later a leaky pipe was discovered and operations were stopped.

The delay has been costly for NCOC, adding an estimated $4b to the current $50b cost of the project.

The Kazakh government and NCOC say commercial production at

Kashagan will resume in the second half of 2016. S&P has forecast a start date no earlier than 2018.

Rich with oil and gas reserves, Kashagan was poised to become the gem of Kazakhstan’s resource-based economy. But technical problems and low oil prices have meant this glittering prize has been delayed.

Over the past few years, international oil companies have quit the project. Now S&P’s decision not to include it in Kazakh econ forecasts further undermines its status .

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Turkmenistan delays TAPI construction

OCT. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan said construction of the TAPI pipeline that will, it is hoped, pump gas from fields in the east of the country to consumers in India would start in 2016. Earlier this year, Turkmenistan had pushed for TAPI to start by the end of 2015. TAPI is a $10b project that will cross Afghanistan and Pakistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Azerbaijan’s oil production rises

OCT. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan produced 31.4m tonnes of oil in the first nine months of the year, around 3% more than had originally been expected, media reported quoting the state oil and gas company. This will be a relief for Azerbaijan’s government which relies on oil for its main revenue.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Japan equips Turkmen gas field

OCT. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Several Japanese companies signed a framework agreement with the Turkmen government to supply equipment to the Galkynysh gas field, one of the largest in the world. Mitsubishi, Chiyoda, Sojits, Itochu and JGC are among the companies involved in the expansion of Galkynysh. Turkmenistan wants to expand Galkynysh to pump gas along a planned pipeline to India.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)