MARCH 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A gas pipeline that will run from Turkmenistan, across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India will cost $7.6b to build, India’s oil and gas ministry said. TAPI, as the pipeline is called, is one of the most ambitious pipeline projects in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Giving a boost to the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline project (TANAP), BP said it was close to a deal to become one of its stakeholders.
In an interview with Reuters, Chris Schlueter, BP country manager in Georgia, said good progress on a deal had been made.
“We are very, very close,” he said. “I think (we will sign the deal) in the next two months.”
Shares in BP rose on the news.
TANAP is seen as a vital plank of the EU’s future energy policy, diversifying away from Russia. It will carry Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian Sea, across Georgia, Turkey and the Balkans to central Europe.
Analysts have said that they consider it vital that, alongside Turkish and Azerbaijani companies, BP is a major shareholder in the project.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 17 2015 (The Bulletin) – Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev flew to Kars in Turkey to launch construction of the $10b Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) which will pump gas from the Caspian to Europe. Also present were Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan and Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
FEB. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The countries developing the planned 1,800km pipeline to run from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India failed to announce a company to lead its construction as had been expected at a meeting in Islamabad. Media had said that France’s Total would be announced as the TAPI consortium leader.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
FEB. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen officials are due to meet in Islamabad with counterparts from Pakistan, India and Afghanistan to decide on the contractor to build the TAPI pipeline, media reported. Sources said the leading candidate to build the pipeline to pump Turkmen gas to Asia is Total.
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(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
FEB. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Italian oil service company Saipem has won a $1.8b contract to replace leaky pipes at the Kashagan oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea, media reported. It said the new pipes would be in place by the end of 2016, allowing oil to flow from Kashagan by the start of 2017.
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(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
JAN. 5 2015, (The Conway Bulletin) — Crude oil and oil product shipments from the Georgian port of Batumi fell by around 22% in 2014 compared to 2013 because of lower than expected exports from Kazakhstan and re-routing through pipelines, a port official told Reuters. Batumi oil terminal is controlled by Kazakh state energy company KazMunaiGas.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
NOV. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani media reported on yet another trip to Ashgabat by the head of Socar, Azerbaijan’s oil and gas company, Rovnag Abdullayev.
Mr Abdullayev was in Ashgabat for the opening of major gas conference. It’s an important time for Azerbaijan- Turkmenistan relations because Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has agreed to sign up to a new pipeline running from Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, to Europe.
Visits by Mr Abdullayev to Ashgabat may appear fairly routine but each trip brings the two countries closer together.
Europe sees Turkmen gas as critical for reducing its reliance on Russian energy and considers the pipeline running from the Caspian Sea to central Europe to be the easiest way to supply the gas.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India have set up a company to develop the so called TAPI gas pipeline that they plan to build, media reported. Establishing a company is another step towards building the 1,800km pipeline. All four countries own an equal share in the company.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Looking to reduce the threat of sabotage, Russia’s energy ministry asked Kazakhstan to use a pipeline through Ukraine to export its crude oil.
The offer was first made in September, but was only reported by Reuters this month when the state-owned energy transport company, KazTransOil, called for local companies to participate in the bid. Although volumes have not yet been agreed, the agreement should allow Kazakh oil to run through the Druzhba (friendship) pipeline, built in 1964, whose Southern branch terminates in Hungary and the Czech Republic.
By agreeing to help fill the Druzhba pipeline, Kazakhstan is stepping directly into the ongoing civil war in Ukraine and the surrounding proxy conflict between the West and Russia.
For Russia, the benefits are fairly obvious. It wants to retain some use for the major Druzhba pipeline and would be able to charge Kazakhstan rent for using it. Russia would also reduce its risk exposure to the pipeline.
For Kazakhstan, the benefits are less obvious. Taking on the route is a major geopolitical headache.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)