APRIL 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan-focused energy company Nostrum Oil & Gas posted a 30% drop in revenues for the first quarter of 2016 compared to last year because of sustained low oil prices. In Jan.-March 2016, Nostrum said revenues were $70m, down from $100m in 2015. Production was also down by 15% to 38,754 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)
APRIL 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ratings agency Moody’s downgraded Kazakhstan’s sovereign debt rating to Bbb3 from Bbb2 and gave it a negative outlook because of sustained low oil prices and a currency devaluation last year which is said had weakened Kazakh banks. Moody’s said: “The negative outlook reflects ongoing pressure on the banking sector’s solvency, which also constrains the growth outlook and poses financial and fiscal risks.”
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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)
APRIL 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhtelecom and Rostelecom, the national telephone operators in Kazakhstan and Russia, agreed to cut costs for phone calls between the two countries. Around 80% of international phone calls from Kazakhstan are to Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)
APRIL 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s state-owned energy company KMG EP said its revenues for Q1 2016 were nearly 50% lower in US dollar terms than in Q1 2015, highlighting the impact of the depreciation of the tenge on Kazakh businesses. KMG EP data is a good indicator of the overall health of Kazakhstan’s state owned energy company Kazmunaigas, a main driver of the Kazakh economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)
APRIL 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Nostrum Oil & Gas shares jumped 6% on Wednesday to 295.25p after the company announced quarterly results, its highest price for over three months.
Investors were happy with the company’s performance although Nostrum said a scheduled maintenance and low oil prices had hindered its performance in Q1 2016.
“It has been a steady start to the first quarter with production broadly in line with expectations taking into account the first part of the annual maintenance,” Kai-Uwe Kessel, Nostrum’s CEO said.
Investors also appreciated Nostrum’s position that cost-cutting remained a top priority.
“We continue to focus on reducing our operating costs internally and I am pleased with the progress we are making,” Mr Kessel said.
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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)
APRIL 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – In the early 2000s, the Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline was hailed as a key component of the New Silk Road, designed by the West for the West. The dream might now be over.
Western oil producers wanted a pipeline that would pump Caspian oil to world markets without having to pass through Russia.
Everyone in Washington DC was excited. “Happiness is multiple pipelines” was the slogan that could be heard espoused by US diplomats and oil companies. It was even seen on bumper stickers around the US capital.
The 1b barrels/day dream pipeline was inaugurated in 2005 and relied on Azerbaijan’s largest oil fields as well as on Kazakh and Turkmen trans-Caspian shipments.
The decade-long excitement, however, seems to have hit a wall as Kazakh oil shipments have now faded away.
Experts don’t believe shipments will resume anytime soon. Tengizchevroil appears to have let its contract with BTC lapse. Kazakhstan’s Aktau port management has said it doesn’t foresee oil shipments from Tengiz resuming.
At a time of low oil prices and rising extraction prices, cutting expenditure on shipments of oil across the Caspian Sea was the obvious move for Kazakh producers.
Tengiz, and Kashagan whenever it comes online, will use the expanded Caspian Pipeline Consortium for future exports.
This choice will isolate Azerbaijan at a time when it is under the spotlight to become Europe’s new gas provider. The take-home from this story is that corporate interest, in the long run, overrides diplomatic objectives.
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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)
APRIL 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s energy minister Kanat Bozumbayev said he expects production at the Kashagan offshore field to resume by the end of 2016. Mr Buzumbayev’s statement sounded like a rebuttal to an earlier comment by CNPC, which said it saw Kashagan production resuming in mid-2017.
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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)
APRIL 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s minister of economy Yerbolat Dossayev and businessmen Yuri Pak and Berik Kaniyev sold their shares in Kazinvestbank, a mid-ranking bank in Kazakhstan, for an undisclosed amount. Gaukhar Kapparova, who received 11.3% of the bank’s shares after her husband died last year, is the only shareholder left from the previous structure.
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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)
APRIL 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazrabayev has signed into law chemical castration for paedophiles, media reported. The law was passed by parliament earlier this year and immediately attracted criticism from human rights campaigners who said that is was barbaric.
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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)
APRIL 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh railway authority announced the launch of a new high-speed connection between Astana and Kostanai, which will be operated by Tulpar-Talgo trains. Tulpar-Talgo is a joint venture between a subsidiary of state-owned Kazakhstan Temir Zholy and Spain’s Talgo.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)