JUNE 30 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen energy minister, Kakageldy Abdullayev, said Turkmenistan would pursue its claim to the disputed Kapaz oil field in the Caspian Sea with the UN, media reported. Azerbaijan also claims ownership of the field. The Caspian Sea littoral states have been locked in a long-running argument over ownership rights.
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(News report from Issue No. 095, published on July 6 2012)
JUNE 19 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan traded diplomatic barbs after an Azerbaijani patrol boat stopped a Turkmen research ship exploring a disputed Caspian Sea oil field. The row highlights tension between the Caspian Sea littoral states over its disputed hydrocarbon resources.
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(News report from Issue No. 093, published on June 22 2012)
MAY 28 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov sacked his energy minister, Bairamgeldy Nedirov, for “serious shortcomings”, media quoted the presidential office as saying. Mr Nedirov had served as energy minister since Aug. 2008. His dismissal on May 25 came two days after signing a gas deal with India and Pakistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 090, published on June 1 2012)
MAY 25 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The setting may have been relatively inauspicious but the ambition was clear to all.
At an oil and gas conference on the Turkmen Caspian Sea coast on May 23, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and India signed a gas supply deal that should mark the start of construction of a pipeline dubbed TAPI.
To deliver the gas to Pakistan and India, the plan is to build a 1,650km pipeline from Turkmenistan across war-ravaged Afghanistan — that’s the ‘A’ in TAPI.
Many commentators have said that it’s too ambitious and that it can’t be done, especially as security in Afghanistan may worsen further after NATO withdraws forces from 2014.
Still, the estimated $10b project may be too big to fail.
Pakistan and India are hungry for energy and, according to the plan, TAPI should become one of their biggest providers. At its peak TAPI should pump 33b cubic metres of gas a year, about three times the size of the EU’s proposed Nabucco pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Europe.
The project’s success is also vital to both Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. For Afghanistan, TAPI is a prestige project with a critical revenue stream. For Turkmenistan, it cements its position as one of the region’s most important energy suppliers.
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(News report from Issue No. 089, published on May 25 2012)
MAY 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Sources inside the Turkmen energy ministry told the AP news agency that Turkmenistan would sign a deal with Afghanistan, Pakistan and India later this month on gas prices for the so-called TAPI pipeline. The planned pipeline, due to run from Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan, is seen as an important economic step for the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 087, published on May 11 2012)
APRIL 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a two-day official visit to Belarus, Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko pledged to work together to improve human rights, local media reported. Human rights groups have described both Turkmenistan and Belarus as repressive.
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(News report from Issue No. 086, published on May 4 2012)
MAY 3 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Bringing an end to an 18-month long dispute that soured relations between Turkmenistan and Russia, the chairman of Russian mobile operator MTS, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, announced on Turkmen TV that a deal had been made to allow it back into the country. MTS had been the biggest mobile operator in Turkmenistan before it lost its licence in Dec. 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 086, published on May 4 2012)
MAY 2 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Other than Georgia, US-based Freedom House rated media in Central Asia and the South Caucasus as “Not Free”. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan propped up the bottom of the table, closely followed by Kazakhstan. Media freedom in Georgia, the report said, had improved in 2011.
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(News report from Issue No. 086, published on May 4 2012)
APRIL 14 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – An enraged Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Turkmenistan’s president, sacked his energy minister, Yarmukhamet Orazgulyev, for being a bad parent, media reported.
Mr Orazgulyev’s son had been racing through Ashgabat with other sons and daughters of the Turkmen elite, when he crashed his car. One person was killed in the crash.
It was not clear who died in the crash but Mr Berdymukhamedov’s irritation was clear.
Not only did he sack Mr Orazgulyev as the energy minister but he also sacked the head of the prestigious university where many of the offspring of the elite study.
The incident provides two useful insights into Turkmenistan, one of the world’s most repressive and secretive countries.
Firstly, Mr Orazgulyev’s reaction to his dismissal showed the extent of Mr Berdymukhamedov’s powers. State media described him agreeing with Mr Berdymukhamedov that he had been a poor parent and begging for any sort of job.
Secondly, the incident highlights the joy-riding, privileged lifestyles of the sons and daughters of the elite who appear to have been able to treat Ashgabat at night as their personal race track, with officials and policemen unwilling to challenge them.
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(News report from Issue No. 084, published on April 20 2012)
APRIL 14 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Turkmen economy grew 10.4% in the 12 months to end-March 2012, state media quoted Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov as saying. This is a slowdown from the 14.4% growth during the same period in 2011 but still shows how quickly the country’s economy is expanding. Since coming to power in 2007, Mr Berdymukhamedov has boosted gas sales overseas.
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(News report from Issue No. 084, published on April 20 2012)