Tag Archives: Turkmenistan

Petronas ups Turkmen output

NOV. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Petronas Carigali said it wants to increase oil production in the Turkmen section of the Caspian Sea. By year-end, output at the Diyarbekir offshore field should reach 10,000 barrels/day and the company plans to add another 7,000 barrels/day from the Garagol-Western Deniz field. Petronas Carigali is the Turkmen subsidiary of the Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Turkmenistan signs Afghan power deal

NOV. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has signed a decree paving the way for Turkmen electricity supplies to Afghanistan until 2027, a move seemingly designed to increase stability in its southern neighbour as well as lock in a long-term client.

The Turkmen government announced the agreement through one of its official websites turkmenistan.ru.

It said that the contract now being finalised between Turkmenenenergo and their Afghan counterparts would run from Jan. 1 2018 until Dec. 31 2027.

It’s important because it highlights both Turkmenistan’s ability to negotiate long-term power deals for its neighbours and also its determination to help Afghanistan stabilise.

Turkmenistan needs a stable Afghanistan for two main reasons. It wants the Afghan government to be strong enough to be able to control a resurgent Taliban and it also needs Afghanistan to be a stable transit partner for the proposed TAPI pipeline running from its gas fields to consumers in India.

TAPI is vital for Turkmenistan. It needs to diversify its client base for gas as it is over-reliant on China.

Turkmenistan has been investing heavily in its power generating infrastructure. It sees the sector as another way of projecting itself on the international stage.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Ukraine wants Turkmenistan flights

NOV. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ukraine’s ministry of infrastructure said it plans to hold negotiations with authorities in Turkmenistan to resume air traffic and boost commercial links between the two countries. In early September, Ukraine International Airlines postponed the launch of a Kiev-Ashgabat connection due to disagreements between the aviation authorities.

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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Iran makes deals with Turkmenistan

NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran’s oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, said trade between Iran and Turkmenistan would boom as the country opened up and made more deals with its neighbours in Central Asia. Local media quoted him as saying that Turkmen- Iranian trade measured $4b last year. He said bilateral trade worth $60b was possible within a decade.

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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Turkmenistan builds giant yurt

NOV. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan built a supersized glass and aluminium yurt to celebrate the city of Mary’s position as 2015 Culture and Arts Capital of the Turkic World, media reported. The yurt, which can hold up to 3,000 people, drew criticism. Central Asian governments are given to grandiose projects, projecting an image of being out-of-touch.

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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Kerry stops over in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan on CAsia tour

NOV. 2/3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On stopovers in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan during his whirlwind tour of Central Asia, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that he had “robustly” raised human rights issues with the countries’ leaders privately despite shying away from criticising his hosts in public.

Human rights groups had urged Mr Kerry to make a major statement on the state of human rights in both Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, countries they regard as among the most oppressive in the world.

Instead, Mr Kerry, in public at least, spoke about joint security concerns and about the need to keep democracy at the forefront of the region’s governance.

“In Central Asia and elsewhere people have a deep hunger for governments that are accountable and effective,” he was quoted as saying.

“We should have no doubt that progress in democratic governance does lead to gains in every other field.”

Perhaps Mr Kerry’s most important objective on his trip of the region was to reassure the leaders’ of the various countries that the United States was still interested in Central Asia despite quitting an air base outside Bishkek and appearing to cede influence to Russia and China.

Mr Kerry met Uzbek President Islam Karimov in Samarkand and later Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov in Ashgabat. Mr Kerry was the first US Secretary of State to visit Ashgabat since James Baker in 1992, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Media quoted Kerry at the end of his tour of Central Asia, summing up his most important aims.

“What we want to see is not a struggle between China and Russia and the United States in a zero-sum game,” he said. “What we want to see is a Central Asia that claims its place as an engine of growth at the heart of a modern and dynamic Asia.”

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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Turkmenistan hosts Poroshenko in snub to Moscow

OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a snub to Moscow, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov hosted talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on sending gas to Ukraine.

At the meeting in Ashgabat the two leaders signed several intergovernmental agreements on industrial and agricultural cooperation. Energy, though, was top of the agenda.

No deal was signed but both leaders said progress had been made.

“We are ready to increase supplies to Ukraine of products from our domestic fuel and energy complex and begin implementing joint projects in this sphere,” Mr Berdymukhamedov said according to state media.

Both Ukraine and Turkmenistan have fallen out with the Kremlin.

The Ukrainian government is locked in a protracted civil war in the east of the country against rebel forces funded by Russia. Turkmenistan has fallen out with Russia’s Gazprom over gas contracts. Earlier this year, Mr Berdymukhamedov called Gazprom an “unreliable partner”.

Russia has begun to cut gas supplies to Ukraine, forcing it to look for alternative suppliers. It has also sharply lowered its purchase of Turkmen gas over the past few years.

The biggest problem for Turkmenistan is how to avoid using Russia’s extensive pipeline network to send gas to Ukraine. It is exploring sending gas and oil products across the Caspian Sea, potentially via a new pipeline but also by ship. From there, gas and oil products can be transported to the Black Sea coast and then shipped to Ukraine.

Media said Mr Berdymukhamedov was due in Kiev next year.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

German firm to quit Turkmenistan

OCT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — DEA Deutsche Erodel AG, a German oil and gas company, may be close to quitting Turkmenistan due to excessive bureaucracy, the exiled Alternative News Turkmenistan website reported. Lengthy custom clearance periods and slow licensing processes were the main complaints. The company has not commented.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Japan’s Sumitomo to build Turkmenistan power plant

OCT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation will build a $300m power plant in Turkmenistan, a significant move for relations between the countries and the Turkmen gas sector.

Sumitomo and state-owned Turkmengaz signed a deal on a new, 400 megawatt gas-fired thermal power plant to be built in the north of the country.

The deal was signed during Japanese PM Shinzo Abe’s visit to Turkmenistan. In total, Japan committed over $18b for various investments in energy and infrastructure projects in Turkmenistan, strengthening economic and diplomatic ties between Tokyo and Ashgabat.

Another Japanese company, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems will provide the gas turbines for the new plant, which is expected to be completed by 2018.

The new plant will allow Turkmenistan to improve its electricity grid, boosting power generation in the north of the country, far removed from the gas-producing regions in the south. Demand for electricity is growing in Turkmenistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

TAPI shareholders sign deal in Turkmen capital

OCT. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — TAPI consortium members signed a deal described by the Asian Development Bank as a milestone shareholders’ agreement at a meeting in Ashgabat, an important step towards turning TAPI from a paper project into a real project. The TAPI project aims to build a pipeline to pump Turkmen gas to India, across Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)