JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Competition Agency fined the country’s five largest petrol retailers $23m for price fixing. The companies fined were SOCAR Georgia Petroleum, Sun Petroleum Georgia, Rompetrol Georgia, Wissol Petroleum Georgia, and Lukoil Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s oil exports fell by 2.5% in the first half of 2015 because of a drop in production, Reuters reported quoting a source in the state statistics committee. Oil and gas exports make up 75% of government revenue.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s oil and gas ministry accused Russia’s Gazprom of failing to pay for natural gas it has supplied it with this year, aggravating a bitter row between the two countries.
Gazprom declined to comment. “Since the beginning of 2015, Gazprom has not paid its debts to the state corporation Turkmengaz for the volumes of Turkmen gas it supplied,” the Turkmen government statement said on its website.
“Russian company Gazprom has become insolvent on its natural gas purchase-and-sale contracts due to the continued global economic crisis and economic sanctions imposed by Western nations on Russia.”
Turkmenistan and Russia have publicly rowed before. In 2014, Gazprom slashed the amount of gas it imported from Turkmenistan to 11b cubic metres (bcm). In 2015, it planned to buy 4bcm. This is a huge drop from previous purchases. In 2008, Gazprom bought 40 bcm from Turkmenistan. And the row has also sucked in other sectors.
In 2010, Turkmenistan expelled Russian mobile phone operator MTS from the country. It later re-installed it.
The drop in Russian gas purchases has forced Turkmenistan to look elsewhere for clients. China has become its biggest client and it is trying to win contracts from the European Union.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Max Petroleum, a London-listed oil company operating in Kazakhstan said that it was operating under severe financial stress because of a back-tax bill imposed by the Kazakh government. Earlier this year, Max Petroleum said the drop in oil prices was pressuring its finances.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan pumped 675, 000 tonnes of oil to Russia in the first half of 2015, up from 508,000 tonnes in 2014, media reported quoting state energy company SOCAR. Azerbaijan had planned to halt oil shipments through the Baku- Novorossiisk pipeline to Russia but instead, seemingly as relations with Russia have improved, increased exports.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev said he would welcome Italian infrastructure company Snam taking a stake in the planned Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which will pump gas from Azerbaijan to Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JUNE 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazmunaigaz, Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil and gas company, said it would sell half its stake in the Caspian Sea Kashagan oil field to Samruk-Kazyna, the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund.
This is a curious arrangement as Samruk-Kazyna actually owns Kazmunaigas. It may be a way for Kazmunaigas, which has been badly hit by the sharp drop in energy prices, to borrow cash cheaply.
According to a press release from the London Stock Exchange, Kazmunaigas is seeking the consent of the shareholders in the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) , the consortium which operates the Kashagan, to sell half of its 16.88% share to Samruk-Kazyna for approximately $4.7b.
“Samruk-Kazyna’s agreement to purchase the Kashagan Shares reflects the State’s strong support of KMG (Kazmunaigas), as a strategic national asset,” the statement said.
Part of the cash raised by the sale would be used to pay $2.2b Kazmunaigas owes in fees relating to its 2013 purchase of the Kashagan stake from US company ConocoPhillips.
Kazmunaigas said that the sale would come with an option to buy back the stake in Kashagan for the same price between 2016 and 2020.
NCOC declined to comment.
Kazmaunaigas had run up large debts, partly because of the oil price slump. Halyk Bank analyst Sabina Amangeldi said in a note last month that the company already has seven Eurobond issues outstanding worth a total of $8.8b.
She also noted that lower oil prices had knocked Kazmunaigas’ revenues by around a third and that profit had been wiped out.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI — Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov travelled to Tbilisi for the first time in his eight-year presidency, part of a high-profile charm offensive aimed at winning support for pumping Turkmen gas to Europe across the South Caucasus.
Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili welcomed Mr Berdymukhamedov at the Presidential Palace overlooking Tbilisi with red carpet and a guard of honour.
“Energy is one of the issues on which we cooperate closely. A Transit route from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey has a huge potential,” Georgian media quoted Mr Berdymukhamedov as saying after the meeting. said.
Mr Margvelashvili agreed.
“Our joint transit and energy projects will make it possible to transit Turkmen energy resources to the European markets,” he said.
This year momentum has built for Turkmenistan to start sending its gas to Europe across the south Caucasus. The European Union has visited Ashgabat several times to secure promises of gas supplies from Turkmenistan and Turkmen officials have set up working groups with their Azerbaijani, Georgian and Turkish counterparts on how best to pump gas to Europe.
Europe wants to reduce its dependence on Russia for energy supplies and Turkmenistan wants to widen its client base. Currently most of its gas flows east to China.
By travelling to Tbilisi for the first time since he became Turkmen president in 2007, Mr Berdymukhamedov has sent out a strong signal of his intent.
Luca Anceschi, a professor of Central Asian Studies at Glasgow University explained.
“This meeting, marking Berdymukhamedov’s first official visit to Georgia, is an important display of Turkmenistan’s policy of maintaining an open dialogue with as many potential partners as possible,” he said.
And Georgia is important because it lies on the pipeline transit route from Azerbaijan to Turkey and then into Europe. Mr Berdymukhamedov, as he clearly has acknowledged, needs Georgian support to push gas through to Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s oil and gas ministry said it wants to increase the amount of processed oil and gas products it exports. Turkmenistan has been trying to increase exports of both raw natural gas and processed products.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazmunaigas, the Kazakh state oil and gas company, is trying for a third time to sell off three companies it owns in Romania, media reported quoting the Kazakh finance ministry. Kazmunaigas wants to sell Rominserv Valves, a valve manufacturer, SA Palplast, a plastic pipe maker and Global Security Systems which provides security guards. All three are currently owned by Rompetrol, a Kazmunaigas subsidiary.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)