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Kazakhstan floats tenge, currency tumbles

People wait in line outside a currency exchange office in Almaty, Kazakhstan, August 20, 2015. Kazakhstan’s under-pressure tenge lost more than a quarter of its value on Thursday after the oil producing central Asian nation, hit by a sharp fall in world crude prices, introduced a freely floating exchange rate for the currency. Acting against a backdrop of devaluation and depreciation in the currencies of some of its major trading partners and rivals, Kazakhstan’s government and central bank said the country’s economic policy would henceforth be based on inflation targeting. "This is not a devaluation, this is a transition to a freely floating rate when the market itself determines a balanced exchange rate on the basis of demand and offer," central bank Governor Kairat Kelimbetov told a news conference broadcast from the capital Astana. The official tenge rate tumbled by 26.2 percent to 255.26 per dollar on the Kazakhstan […]

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Yuan Ripples Reach Kazakhstan as Tenge Tumbles Most Since 2014

Kazakhstan allowed its tenge to weaken the most since a devaluation 18 months ago, signaling Central Asia’s biggest crude exporter wants to adjust to declines in the currencies of its top trading partners, China and Russia. The tenge declined 4.4 percent to 197 per dollar by 2:29 p.m. in Almaty. That was the steepest retreat since February 2014 when the central bank, which uses its foreign-currency reserves to manage the exchange rate within a trading band versus the dollar, depreciated it by about 20 percent. Central bank representatives weren’t available to comment when contacted by Bloomberg. Pressure is mounting on countries that trade with China to let their currencies weaken after the yuan slide last week made their exports less competitive. Kazakhstan has also suffered from oil’s 22 percent retreat in the past two months, especially since its northern neighbor and trading partner Russia is allowing the ruble to […]

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Lenders back Azeri gas project with European focus

Asian and European lenders offer support for Azeri gas project that would help diversify a European energy sector dependent on Russia. Photo by tcly/Shutterstock MANILA, Aug. 7 (UPI) — Asian and European lenders unveiled a $1 billion finance package Friday to help fund an Azeri natural gas field meant to diversify the European energy sector. The Asian Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with support from the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, announced funding support for the second stage of the Shah Deniz natural gas field off the coast of Azerbaijan. The ADB said the project is "crucial" for energy security in the European economy. "This project is one of the European Union’s highest priorities for the energy sector," EBRD Managing Director for Energy and Natural Resources Riccardo Puliti said in a statement. "It is key for energy security because it diversifies routes and […]

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Ukraine considers Kazakh gas transit options

Ukraine is reviewing its natural gas options after tilting away from its former Soviet patrons. File Photo by UPI/Hamid Forotan KIEV, Ukraine, July 17 (UPI) — Trade agreements with Kazakhstan may include the possibility of receiving natural gas shipments sent through the country, Ukraine’s government said. The Ukrainian government said Friday it was working to develop trade and economic deals with Kazakhstan. Arrangements were drafted during bilateral economic sessions attended by deputy ministers on both sides. Kiev said the terms of the agreement call on representatives from each country to examine the potential for energy cooperation. "The participants of the meeting also agreed to study the issue of supply to Ukraine of Kazakhstan natural gas and transit through the territory of Kazakhstan of Turkmen and Uzbek natural gas," the Ukrainian government said in a statement. An April report from the International Energy Agency said a more liberalized energy sector […]

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Exclusive: European Union sees supplies of natural gas from Turkmenistan by 2019

ASHGABAT (Reuters) – The European Union, keen to lessen its dependence on Russia for energy supplies, expects to start receiving natural gas from Turkmenistan by 2019, European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said in an interview. Russia currently supplies around a third of Europe’s gas needs, but Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and its involvement in the military conflict in eastern Ukraine has added urgency to the EU’s search for gas from alternative sources. "We have good mutual understanding. For Turkmenistan it is very important to diversify its export options, while for the EU it is very important to diversify its imports," Sefcovic told Reuters in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat. "Europe expects supplies of Turkmen gas to begin by 2019," he said, speaking in Russian. Turkmenistan, a Central Asian nation with the world’s fourth-largest reserves of natural gas, is keen to diversify exports of the fuel away from Russia which […]

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War Haunts Russia’s Southern Fringe, Threatening Pipelines

Armenian soldiers during a cease fire during the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1993. Russia’s southern periphery is closer to open war than at any time since the 1990s. Hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia are mounting 21 years after a cease-fire froze a conflict that flared in the dying days of the Soviet Union. During the relative calm, companies including BP Plc poured billions of dollars into producing oil and gas in Azerbaijan and building pipelines to link the country with southern Italy. The upswing in violence now threatens to put some of those investments at risk and destabilize a region that separates Russia from Turkey and Iran. A May 3 election looming in Nagorno-Karabakh, the region Armenians took over in the war more than two decades ago, may trigger a wider confrontation, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc said. The vote “could further escalate the tensions, increasing the risks […]

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Kazakhstan hosts oil-spill roundtable

Parties to a roundtable discussion on oil spills in Kazakhstan look to response to Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010 as a case study. File Photo by UPI/U.S. Coast Guard. ASTANA, Kazakhstan, April 24 (UPI) — The government in oil-rich Kazakhstan hosted a roundtable discussion on developing a regional response to spills, the OSCE said Friday. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in coordination with the Kazakh Energy Minister and the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan organized a discussion on how best to plan a regional response to an oil spill program. "Once approved, the regional oil spill plan will be an important tool to ensure that the regional authorities have a system that will ensure effective co-ordination and integration of all relevant resources both from government and private sectors," Peter Taylor, a manager for the regional oil spill response organization, said in a statement. The roundtable brought more […]

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IEA: Central Asia, Eastern Europe need to open energy doors

Energy-rich countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia need tie-ins to European market, IEA report from Paris finds. File Photo by Shutterstock/Kodda/UPI. PARIS, April 13 (UPI) — A more liberalized energy sector in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is necessary for regional energy security, a report Monday from the IEA said. The IEA published a 476-page report on the region’s energy sector, stating that, while countries like Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are emerging as oil and gas powerhouses, their reserves are under "rigid" and mostly government control. The European market relies in part on Russian natural reserves and many of those reserves run through Eastern European markets, where crises like Ukraine’s expose vulnerabilities. Apart from Norway, the European community has looked outside of the region for a diverse source of energy. "The EU’s energy security increasingly depends on the production in and safe transit of energy goods through our neighboring […]

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Gas key to EU ties with Azerbaijan

Natural gas developments key part of bilateral ties with Azerbaijan, country report from the European Union said. (UPI/Shutterstock/James Jones Jr.) Development of a natural gas pipeline network from Azerbaijan is one of the most important aspects of bilateral ties, a European Union report said Wednesday. The European Union published a series of reports Wednesday on the neighborhood policy for Eastern European and Central Asian countries, some of which are former Soviet republics. The report for Azerbaijan said the country’s economy was stable and diverse in part because of growth outside of the energy sector, which nevertheless underpinned bilateral ties . Azerbaijan is rich in natural gas reserves, which the EU sees as a source of diversification for an energy sector dominated in large part by Russia. "The commitment for the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor continued to be of utmost importance for the EU-Azerbaijan dialogue," the country report […]

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Kazakhstan expects oil production boom

Kazakh government expects oil boom once troubled Kashagan oil field resumes operations. (Photo: North Caspian Operating Co.) Kazakhstan’s government said Wednesday it expects oil production to increase by as much as 30 percent in part because of operations at its giant Kashagan field. Kashagan is among the largest oil fields in the world, with an estimated 16 billion barrels of oil reserves. Production was halted in October 2013, less than a month after it started, when a pipeline associated with the field cracked open. Kazakh Deputy Energy Minister Uzakbai Karabalin told reporters the government in Astana is determined to increase production despite a series of setbacks. "Oil output is expected to reach 630 million barrels in 2017 and 760 million barrels in 2020," he said. "This increase will be due to the expansion project at [onshore oil field] Tengiz and resumption of offshore oil production at Kashagan." Kazakh production […]

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