MAY 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan expects direct foreign investment of $3b this year from energy companies looking to develop its Caspian Sea oil reserves, Reuters quoted Yagshigeldy Kakayev, head of the Turkmen state agency on the use of hydrocarbon resources, as saying. In 2013, the figure was $2.5b.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The consortium of companies developing the second phase of the Shah Deniz gas field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea handed out another major contract.
This time it was a $735m contract to build two sections of a pipeline that will pump gas to Europe. This is an important project both for Azerbaijan and for Europe which is looking to reduce its dependency on Russia for energy.
A joint bid by Azeri firm Azfen and Amsterdam-based Saipem Contracting Netherlands BV won the contract to build a 428km pipeline between Azerbaijan and Georgia and a second 59km pipeline in Georgia.
Earlier this year the BP-led consortium developing Shah Deniz II, as the second phase of the development is known, handed out contracts worth billions of dollars, including also to Saipem, an Italian oil and gas services company.
And there promises to be plenty more multi-million- dollar contracts. Shah Deniz II is one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the world. Its entire cost is estimated at $28b.
Reuters quoted Gordon Birrell, BP’s president for the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey region as saying that the development of the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion was on schedule.
Most of the contracts are due for completion by 2017, with first gas scheduled for a year later.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
May 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan plans to produce 75b cubic metres of gas this year, up from 70bcm last year, a senior official told Reuters on the sidelines of the annual gas conference in the Caspian Sea resort of Avaza. Turkmenistan has been boosting its output to hit increased demand.
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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)
May 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin)- The consortium of companies developing the giant Kashagan oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea will have to replace the entire pipeline system, Kazakhstan’s oil and gas minister Uzakbai Karabalin said. The massive rebuild may delay the re-start of Kashagan beyond 2015.
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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)
May 18/19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev travelled to Hanoi for his first trip to Vietnam. While there he signed various agreements with his Vietnamese counterpart Truong Tan Sang to deepen bi- lateral relations. Like Azerbaijan, Vietnam is also developing its off-shore energy industry.
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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)
May 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a state visit to China, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said that Kazakhstan would boost oil exports to China. China has become Kazakhstan’s biggest energy client. It is looking for more and more energy supplies and has been consolidating its stranglehold.
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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)
May 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s gas export volume is set to fall by nearly 10% this year because of a decline in sales to Russia, a senior SOCAR official told Reuters. SOCAR is the Azerbaijani state energy company. This is important as gas is a major currency earner for Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)
May 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A landslide in Georgia damaged a pipeline, temporarily cutting off gas supplies to Armenia, media reported. It’s unclear how serious the damage caused by the landslide is or when gas supplies through the pipeline will resume. Gazprom Armenia said it had enough reserves to cover the shortfall from the pipeline
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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)
MAY 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – KazMunaiGas, the Kazakh state energy company, said it had found oil at an onshore site, media reported. The discovery was part of the Rozhkovskoye field near the north-western city of Uralsk. It’s currently unclear how large the discovery is.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Iranian government-linked North Drilling Company is in talks with Turkmen officials to establish an oil well in Turkmenistan, media reported quoting a company director. Iran and Turkmenistan have generated increasingly close ties over the past few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)