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 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia will start building a deep water port on its Black Sea coast to cope with an expected surge in cargo being transported across the South Caucasus and on to Europe.
Georgian PM Irakli Garibshvili appeared to slip in news of the planned construction, almost casually, during comments he made at a Georgia-France business forum.
“We expect that Georgia’s demand for transport and logistics will increase,” the Trend news agency quoted Mr Garibashvili as saying.
“Therefore, we have decided to construct a deep-sea port in the Black Sea (Anaklia), to better serve the rapidly growing business in transportation and warehousing sectors.”
There has been something of an infrastructure boom across the South Caucasus.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline pumps oil from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, generating revenue for the transit countries and plans for more pipelines will also push up earnings.
What Mr Garibashvili was talking about though is physical cargo transported from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea. Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey have combined to modernise the co-called Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. This is predominantly a trade route used to transit goods. Although it doesn’t finish in Anaklia it will still benefit the port town just north of Poti.
Increased trade across the South Caucasus is set to give Georgian industry a much needed boost.
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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 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)
MAY 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan has offered India’s state-owned energy company ONGC Videsh a stake in the Abai oil field in the Caspian Sea, media reported. Almost exactly a year ago, Kazakhstan blocked a deal by India to buy a stake in the giant Kashagan oil field. India has been looking to Kazakhstan to boost its oil reserves.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
APRIL 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Under pressure from persistent delays and setbacks, the North Caspian Operating Company building the Kashagan oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea sacked Pierre Offan, its chairman and managing director. Officials have said Kashagan may be closed for another two years while leaky pipes are replaced.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — China’s state-owned Sinopec bought the Kazakhstan business unit of Russia’s Lukoil for $1.2b. The deal to buy 50% of Caspian Investment Resources ltd (CIR) underlines the shift in Kazakhstan’s energy sector away from Russia towards China. Sinopec already owned the other 50% of CIR.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)