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 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s ambassador in Delhi, Parahat Durdyev, said that the countries developing the so-called TAPI pipeline what will pump Turkmen gas to the Indian sub-continent will choose their consortium partners by the start of September.
The Kremlin-linked Sputnik news agency quoted Mr Durdyev as saying: “By September 1, the government of Turkmenistan [is] committed to producing the final results of the selection of a consortium and the leader of the consortium.”
TAPI is one of the biggest and most ambitious energy projects in the world. Construction work hasn’t yet started on the 1,650km pipeline which will cross Afghanistan and Pakistan but international organisations such as the World Bank have said that they support the plan.
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(News report from Issue No. 237, published on June 25 2015)
JUNE 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s oil shipments via the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline increased 40% in the first five months of the year compared to the same period in 2014, media reported quoting the state energy company. The increased oil flow through Russia is scheduled.
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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)
MAY 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a boost for EU aspirations to pump gas from Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan said that although the countries which ring the Caspian Sea still argue over ownership, it didn’t see any problems building a pipeline across it, media reported. The EU is keen to diversify its gas supplies away from Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif flew to Ashgabat to meet with Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and discuss prospective energy projects.
After their meeting, Mr Sharif said Pakistan wanted to speed up regional energy projects, including the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan- India (TAPI) pipeline — a much-discussed project that could deliver Turkmen gas to South Asia.
Mr Sharif’s visit to Ashgabat highlights just how important the TAPI project is to South Asia and also reflects Turkmenistan’s burgeoning status in the region.
Turkmenistan is trying to push the TAPI project forward in order to diversify its export routes. Its main client is China although it is also in talks with the EU to supply gas.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has finished building a pipeline that crosses the country from east to west, Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said on a trip to Vienna.
The pipeline connects Shatlyk, near the giant gas field of Galkynysh, to Belek, a few kilometres south of Turkmenbashi, on the Caspian Sea coast.
The east-west flow of the pipeline shows that Turkmenistan is poised, eager even, to send gas to Europe. Mr Berdymukhamedov hinted, strongly, at a similar reason for the pipeline.
“The construction of this pipeline, which is capable in the long term, if necessary, to transport large volumes of Turkmen energy resources in the right direction, will provide additional guarantees for their reliable and stable export,” he said.
Europe wants to import gas from Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan, wants to broaden its client base away from China.
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(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)
APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Malaysia’s state energy company Petronas completed the $2.25b buyout of the Statoil’s assets in Azerbaijan, making it one of the biggest players on the Azerbaijani oil and gas scene.
The deal included a 15.5% stake in the Shah Deniz gas project, a 15.5% stake in the South Caucasus Pipeline Company and a 12.4% stake in the Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company.
Importantly, too, Azerbaijan’s state oil and gas company SOCAR took over operational control of the South Caucasus Pipeline Company which pumps gas from the Shah Deniz project, across Georgia to Turkey. From there it links up to the Turkish gas pipeline network.
Statoil surprised analysts last October when it agreed the deal. At the time it said that it wanted to reduce the proportion of investment in its portfolio in favour of higher value projects.
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
APRIL 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – India’s external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, flew to Ashgabat to meet Turkmen officials to, possibly, push the TAPI pipeline project along. TAPI aims to carry Turkmen gas to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 226, published on April 8 2015)
MARCH 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan will start building a fourth gas pipeline to China at the end of this year, Interfax news agency quoted an official from the state energy company Uzbekneftegaz as saying. The pipeline is expected to be 260km long and cost around $800m.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EU wants to revive a project to build a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Europe, Reuters reported quoting an EU diplomat based in Ashgabat. Since a civil war erupted in Ukraine last year, the EU has tried to work out how to dilute its reliance on Russia for gas supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)