Azerbaijan, for two decades a reliable energy supplier for the West, may reconsider that “partnership” as Europe drags its feet over the proposed Nabucco pipeline and the Caspian country sees its hope that it could eventually join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization extinguished.
Continue reading →The European Council, in a meeting principally devoted to determining the European Union’s policy towards its eastern members and preparing an EU position for next week’s Group of 20 summit in London, also took an important decision last week on … Continue reading →
An agreement was announced late last month between Russia and China for China energy FDI to construct a pipeline branch to China from the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline. This is only one aspect of a relatively new strategic … Continue reading →
The global fall in prices of key earners oil and gas is making the Kazakhstan tenge weak. The roiled economy may have to let its currency weaken further following the 18 per cent devaluation earlier last week as the current … Continue reading →
Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR and Kazakhstan’s state monopoly KazMunaiGaz (KMG) this month signed an agreement moving Caspian energy projects for Europe forward as they set out the main principles for a transport system to convey Kazakhstani oil across the … Continue reading →
The Kazakhstan financial crisis, where the economy has endured a switchback progress since independence from the Kremlin in 1991, is discovering the benefits of salting away wealth in the good times as it seeks to survive the global downturn without … Continue reading →
The armed conflict between Russian and Georgia has further exposed the fragile position of the energy links running through the smaller country from the Caspian Sea to developed market economies South Ossetia energy geopolitics on the ground today Russian forces … Continue reading →
Corruption and politics in Ukraine threaten to choke off, at least in the near term, the expansion of oil exports, through the Odessa-Brody pipeline, from Azerbaijan and eventually Kazakhstan to Europe. This is the significance of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliya … Continue reading →
The one-year anniversary of the EU’s Partnership Strategy with Central Asia (Central Asia Partnership) gets off to a slow start but is not without potential. Origins of the EU’s Central Asia Partnership Strategy One year ago this month, the European … Continue reading →
Ground was broken in Kazakhstan last week for construction of that country’s segment of a pipeline for Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline transmission, set to be the longest and most expensive such pipeline in the world. Its length is usually given as … Continue reading →