By Hillary Durgin
Houston, Nov 3
(Financial Times)
Chevron yesterday said shareholders of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) had approved a $1.3bn budget for next year, allowing construction of the pipeline and marine terminal to be completed by mid-2001.
The 900-mile Caspian pipeline will carry crude oil from western Kazakhstan to the Black Sea port of Novorrosiysk. Chevron, which holds a 15 per cent equity interest in the CPC, said the budget agreement would allow the pipeline to be ready for its first oil in 2001.
Site work at the marine terminal is well under way, and CPC expects to begin laying the pipeline later this month. To date, expenditures have exceeded $500m.
Chevron said it would be a primary beneficiary of the pipeline, which will connect Kazakhstan�s Tengiz oil field, in which it has a 45 per cent stake, to the Russian Black Sea coast. The pipeline will allow for the maximum development of the Tengiz field, which has potential reserves of 6bn-9bn barrels of recoverable oil and allow the joint venture to reach peak production of 700,000 barrels per day (b/d) in 2010.
The pipeline is expected to deliver oil through the marine terminal in mid-2001 with an initial export capacity of 560,000 b/d. With upgrades, the pipeline capacity will ultimately reach 1.5m b/d.
The equity interest in the CPC is allocated as follows: Russia holds 24 per cent, Kazakhstan 19 per cent, Oman 7 per cent, Chevron Caspian Pipeline Consortium 15 per cent, Lukarco 12.5 per cent, Rosneft-Shell Caspian Ventures 7.5 per cent, Mobil Caspian Pipeline 7.5 per cent, Agip International 2 per cent, BG Overseas Holdings 2 per cent, Kazakhstan Pipeline Ventures 1.75 per cent and Oryx Caspian Pipeline 1.75 per cent.
DUSHANBE, Nov 4
(AFP)
Tajikistan�s five-year civil war cost seven billion dollars and killed off hopes of reforms, but leaders here still expect a 1997 peace deal to attract the first trickle of foreign investment to kick-start its sputtering economy.
�If the republic is politically stable and calm, then foreign investors will come to us,� Tajik Economics Minister Davlat Usmon told AFP.
�This will save Tajikistan�s economy. If not, then there will be poverty and collapse.�
On Saturday, voters in the impoverished Central Asian republic will cast their votes in a presidential election, in which President Emomali Rakhmanov is the only real candidate.
Usmon�s name will appear on the ballot, but the former opposition candidate has refused to campaign and western observers say the election has turned into a farce.
Tajikistan, which suffered tremendous losses during its bloody 1992-97 civil war, is lagging behind other former Soviet republics in starting economic reforms.
Enterprises are still working at only 36 percent of capacity, privatisation has barely started and unemployment is rampant in this mostly-rural republic of six million people.
More than 70 percent of the population lives in poverty, a UN report found.
Nevertheless, Tajikistan has an untapped wealth of metals, minerals, natural gas, coal and hydro-electricity with some 60 percent of Central Asia�s rivers starting in Tajik mountains.
Following the 1997 peace accord, Tajikistan started working with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to stabilise its economy, tightening monetary policy and improving the balance of payments, Usmon said.
The program �stabilised to some extent the republic�s economy, stopped the fall of production and brought about growth in gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of 1997 and 1998,� he said.
But while GDP rose 17 percent in 1998 to 1.22 billion dollars, the first nine months of this year saw only a 0.9 percent growth compared to the same period last year, he said.
The problem, says Usmon, is the lack of foreign investment.
In this country where 90 percent of the population is Muslim, conspiracy and intrigue reign and armed skirmishes in the capital, Dushanbe, have kept foreign investors wary and, for the most part, away from Tajikistan.
�It�s the smallest and most inaccessible of all the Central Asian countries. If they don�t distinguish themselves at least politically, the investors are going to go to other countries where they can get profits more quickly,� said one western observer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In all, Tajikistan has nearly 260 joint- and foreign-owned ventures, Usmon said. Most of these are small businesses, the western observer said.
To attract investment, the government adopted a five-year plan ending in 2001 which seeks to slow annual inflation of 43 percent to eight percent by then and to boost growth in output by four to five percent a year, Usmon said.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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