DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least one person has died and another 29 people are missing after an oil platform in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea caught fire.The platform is part of the Gunehsli field which is operated by BP.
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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)
NOV. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In its financial results for the first nine months of the year, Kazakhstan- focused Nostrum Oil & Gas said revenues were down 40% to $374.8m. Low oil prices and back taxes dented Nostrum’s financial position. Nostrum is investing around $500m in the GTU3 gas treatment facility, which will increase production to 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) by 2017 from around 40,000boepd.
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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)
NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a move designed to help oil exporters, the Kazakh government said it would cut export duty on a tonne of oil to $40 from $60. Some exporters in Kazakhstan have simply stopped production until either oil prices improved or taxes were cut.
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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)
NOV. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Rosneft, the Russian oil and gas company, bought Armenia’s Petrol Market chain of petrol stations for $40m, media reported, extending Russian influence over the country. Media reported that the deal was made in August but only reported now.
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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)
NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik said 40,000 people working in the country’s oil and gas sector could lose their jobs next year if energy prices continued to stay low. He said the depressed price of oil had decimated the oil and gas sector.
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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)
NOV. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Canada-based Tethys Petroleum extended an exclusivity period by 14 days for Kazakhstan’s Olisol to submit final details of its $35m buyout offer to Dec. 7. Tethys has also now appointed Alexander Abramov and William Wells to its board meeting, a pre-condition of the offer.
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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)
NOV. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil producers suffered in the London stock market this week, due to mixed industrial announcements.
Tethys Petroleum shares lost 13% in one week closing at 4.25p on Friday. Nostrum Oil & Gas was on track to a similar fall after it lost 9% on Monday, recovering later in the week after it showed its investment plans for a new gas treatment facility. On Friday, Nostrum closed at 376p, down 3.5%. Roxi Petroleum shares closed at 7.75p on Friday, down 5% from last week.
Central Asia Metals lost 2.2% this week to close at 161.5p on Friday, while the other major miner in Kazakhstan, KAZ Minerals, gained 7.8% to 99.8p.
Newly-listed Georgia Healthcare Group lost around 2% this week to close at 177p on Friday.
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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)
NOV. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tengizchevroil (TCO), the consortium producing oil at the Tengiz field near Atyrau in west Kazakhstan, has stopped oil shipments via tanker from the Caspian port of Aktau because of high Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) export tariffs, a port official told Astana TV.
TCO declined to deny the story. Instead it confirmed that it was now exporting more of its oil through the CPC pipeline which pumps oil from Tengiz around the top of the Caspian Sea to Novorossiysk in Russia.
In an interview with Astana TV, a channel owned by the ruling Nur Otan party, Marat Ormanov, director at KazMorTransFlot, the shipping subsidiary of Kazmunaigas, said TCO shipment for crude oil had dropped to zero.
“TCO left in July, re-routing its entire output through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium. Other companies have followed suit and now there is almost no one left in Aktau,” Mr Ormanov said.
A news reporter for Astana TV then quoted him as saying that part of the reason that TCO had quit the Caspian Sea route was because of increased export tariffs imposed by the EEU. The EEU is the Kremlin-led trade bloc that includes Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia.
In December 2013, tankers shipped over 77,000 tonnes of oil every week from Aktau across the Caspian Sea. This year, KazMorTransFlot had planned to send a similar amount to both Makhachkala and Baku. Oil production in Kazakhstan has dropped off this year because of a slump in prices. Companies have also been looking for cheaper ways to export it.
This has coincided with the introduction of EEU rules and tariffs which many businesses have complained add a layer of bureaucracy and complicate business.
The Tengiz field is important to Kazakhstan. It is its biggest and, arguably, most successful oil project. The partners in the project are Chevron, ExxonMobil, Kazmunaigas and LukArco.
In response to the Astana TV interview, TCO told The Bulletin that it was moving away from exporting oil via Aktau.
“TCO has maximised transportation through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium system so as to take advantage of this more cost-effective route,” said Yerlan Kassym, public affairs adviser.
“As a result, transportation through other routes, including the more expensive southern route via the Aktau port, have been minimised.”
TCO declined to comment on EEU tariffs and duties. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) is exempt from EEU tariffs because it is classified as an international pipeline.
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(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)
NOV. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Despite pledging to maintain oil and gas production this year, both have fallen in Azerbaijan. Oil production, vital for the economy, fell 2% to 35m tonnes in the first 10 months of the year, a government source told Reuters, and the national statistics office said gas production dropped 2.7% in same period.
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Toronto-based Condor Petroleum said in its third quarter results that it had had to abandon an exploration well it had drilled in the Zharkamys West field in western Kazakhstan after it was found to be dry. Condor suspended production in Kazakhstan earlier this year because oil prices were too low to turn a profit.
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)