SEPT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has begun work on the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) project, part of the route that will carry gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe, local media quoted Rovnag Abdullayev, the chairman of Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company SOCAR, as saying. Mr Abdullayev said that 400km of pipes had been delivered to TANAP.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
SEPT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Low oil prices hit Kazakhstan again, as it revised downwards oil production numbers.
Iran’s re-emergence into the global markets will keep prices low according to a spokesperson from the Ministry of Energy in Astana and this means the Kazakhstan will lower production.
“Oil output is expected to reach 79.5m tonnes in 2015,” the spokesperson told Reuters. This is
1m tonnes less than earlier predicted and almost 2% less than in 2014. And it could get worse, as the government has not ruled out a further reduction in production, should prices continue to fall.
This has an adverse effect on Kazakhstan’s economy.
First, foreign investors reduce their financial positions because their assets lose value, either because of low oil prices or due to the devaluation of the local currency. Foreign investors have already started to leave Kazakhstan,
as TeliaSonera, Samsung, Honda, have shown in the past fortnight.
Second, the country’s financial position weakens further. It has to spend foreign reserves to protect its currency from falling further.
Third, the domestic oil sector marks some projects, which have been labelled uneconomic, as on- hold until oil prices rise. This, in turn, means lower revenues.
When it comes to oil, Kazakhstan is a price-taker. Its fate will depend on how it manages to survive what could be a long period of cheap oil.
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
SEPT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan will establish a national energy holding next year, Kubanychbek Turdubayev, Kyrgyz minister of energy, said in a statement. The government has said that it hopes that a single energy holding would improve efficiency.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
SEPT. 18-24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — KAZ Minerals shares, now trading at 101 pence, lost over 30% in one week, a fall sharper than the one it suffered last January, when it dropped by more than 25% in one day. Questions on China’s demand
for copper worried investors. Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas downgraded KAZ Minerals and reviewed downwards its target price. Goldman Sachs said there could be a potential upside on Friday and next week.
Nostrum Oil & Gas dropped a further 4% to 481 pence (Sept. 25), although an agreement with Tethys Petroleum seems closer after a company statement said the latest Nostrum offer priced each Tethys share at 0.147 Canadian dollars (Sept. 23).
Azerbaijan-based miner Anglo- Asian Mining gained 13% to 5.38 pence this week, after it published a promising H1 2015 report.
Kazakhstan-focused Roxi Petroleum continued its oil price linked slump, dropping by 4.3% to 8.5 pence this week in London.
In the GDR markets, Kazmunaigas E&P lost almost 20% this week, trading at $6.47 onFriday, almost certainly linked to Kazakhstan’s weak prospects in terms of oil production. Kcell fell by 13.4% finishing the week at $5.35 after TeliaSonera announced last week it would leave its Eurasian markets. TeliaSonera owns 62% of Kcell.
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
SEPT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — KazTransGaz Aimak, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state-owned gas transit system, said it plans to issue Eurobonds for 5b tenge ($18.6m) to refinance its outstanding debt. KazTransGas Aimak, which controls the gas distribution system in the Almaty region, has an outstanding bonds issue of 8.6b tenge ($31.9m) maturing in December 2018.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
SEPT. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – To meet growing demand, Tajikistan has increased the volume of liquefied natural gas (LNG) it imported to 220,000 tonnes in the first eight months of the year, an increase of 18% over the same period last year. Tajikistan imports LNG from Kazakhstan. Over the past year, the proportion of LNG-fuelled vehicles on the road in Tajikistan has increased to 60% from 40%.
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
SEPT. 11-18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Canadian mining company Centerra Gold saw its stock price on the Toronto Stock Exchange jump over 16% to 7.34 Canadian dollars, after having slumped in the past three weeks, due to the signing of a new exploration licence in British Columbia. Centerra’s main asset, the Kumtor gold mine, is located in Kyrgyzstan. London listed KAZ Minerals, was down 6% to 152 pence due to low copper prices. Kazakhstan-focused Roxi Petroleum gained 4.4% this week, to 8.75 pence.
Kcell, one of Kazakhstan’s largest telecoms, lost 2% on Sept. 17 after its mother company TeliaSonera said it would leave Eurasian markets.
London-listed Bank of Georgia surged 3.9% this week to 1,907 pence. The GDR stock of Georgia’s TBC Bank lost 6.5% this week in London, down to $9.25 per share, though it had fallen to $9.11 on Sept. 14.
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(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)
SEPT. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s state oil and gas company SOCAR said it would transfer less cash to the national budget this year because a fall in oil prices had dented its revenues. This is a blow to Azerbaijan which is heavily reliant on revenues from oil and gas for its income.
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(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)
SEPT. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP said it will suspend operations at the Chirag oil platform, in Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian Sea because of planned maintainence work. BP didn’t specify when Chirag would resume operations. Chirag, together with Azeri and Guneshli, is one of the most important oil fields in Azerbaijan.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)
SEPT. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — If oil prices remain steady at roughly $50/barrel, Kazakhstan’s state oil and gas company, Kazmunaigas will post a profit of 75b tenge ($279m) in 2015, Sauat Mynbayev, the company chairman, told the Interfax news agency. In 2014, the company posted a profit of nearly 200b tenge ($743m at the current rate). Mr Mynbayev said the government’s decision to let the tenge float free against the dollar has helped contain losses.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 248, published on Sept. 18 2015)