Reply #15: Some info about Kyrgyzstan's resources [View All]

[Dover]

After seven decades of Soviet rule, Kyrgyzstan emerged as an independent state with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. A small, mountainous country with a predominantly agricultural economy, Kyrgyzstan has been the most progressive country in Central Asia in enacting market reforms, selling off state-owned enterprises, and adopting democratic principles.

(Their economic crisis worsened due to the cost of servicing the US $1.27 billion foreign debt. This debt accounts for 40 percent of the total budget. In 1999, Kyrgyzstan defaulted on repayments to Turkey, Pakistan and Russia. The GDP for 1999 was estimated at US $978 million. GDP grew by 3.6 percent in 1999 compared to 10 percent in 1997, but with inflation at around 40 percent, and a dramatic fall in industrial production, joblessness and hunger became widespread. The national census in May showed a total population of 4.8 million, a 13 percent increase since 1989. The largest increase of 23 percent was in the southern city of Osh which now has a population of 1.1 million. )

Hydropower
Kyrgyzstan's abundant water resources give it significant hydroelectric potential. The energy potential of Kyrgyzstan's mountain rivers is estimated at 163 Bkwh per year, of which only about 10% is currently exploited. Hydroelectric energy meets approximately 20% of Kyrgyzstan's primary energy requirements and accounts for nearly 20% of its total exports. With rapidly growing energy demand in neighboring Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan's hydroelectric power potential will likely become more attractive to foreign investors.

In May 2000, Turkish construction companies Entes and Kanalet signed a protocol of intent with Kyrgyzstan on construction of a hydroelectric station (Kambar-Atinskaya Hydroelectric Station-2) on the Naryn River. The project will require investment of up to $1 billion, of which the two Turkish firms are prepared to invest $230 million. Work on the station, which began during the Soviet era but was halted in the early 1990s due to a lack of funds, is 30% complete.

Since 1997, the World Bank has been involved in financing the modernization of Kyrgyzstan's hydropower sector. Four hydropower plants have been built within the framework of the $90-million World Bank program to upgrade the sector. In October 2000, Kyrgyzstan began operating a 0.2-Bkwh-capacity hydropower station in the north of the country. The $11-million station, in which Kyrgyzenergo invested $1 million, will generate electricity for the northen part of the country and for Bishkek.

Privatization
Kyrgyzenergo, which is state-owned and holds a monopoly on Kyrgyzstan's power sector, is set to be restructured and privatized. Kyrgyzstan is to start privatizing energy companies in 2001, according to Anatoly Makarov, first deputy CEO of the committee for the management of state property. As part of a denationalization program, a number of electricity networks were separated from Kyrgyzenergo in mid-January 2001 and four grid companies were set up based on these networks.

Kyrgyzstan plans to announce an international tender for the privatization of the grid company Severelektro, which unites the electricity distribution networks of the three northern regions of the country. Makarov said that energy companies from the U.S., France, the U.K., and Germany that already have experience in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States will take part in the tender. Funds received from the privatization of Severelektro will be used to repair and reconstruct power grids in the country.

However, Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who took office in January 2001, has signaled his intention to fight the privatization unless his government has sufficient time to study all the details of the restructuring process. The state has an 80.5% share of Kyrgyzenergo and a 15% share is fixed in the ownership of the Kyrgyz Social Fund and company employees. The State Property Committee is planning to sell the remaining 4.5% at auction. Kyrgyzenergo's assets include 17 hydroelectric stations and two thermal electric stations in Kyrgyzstan. In June 2000, former Prime Minister Amangeldi Muraliyev said in an interview to journalists that the large Toktogul hydropower station would remain under state control even after the structural reorganizations were carried out in the power engineering sector.

http://www.nigc.org/eia/kyrgyz.asp

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Iran and Kyrgyzstan to sign economic cooperation agreement

28-09-04 A Kyrgyz official said that the meeting of Iranian and Kyrgyz economic experts have been successful.
Kyrgyz Deputy Communication and Transportation Minister Azad Ajikov said that the meeting was held in two sessions and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the 7th Iran-Kyrgyzstan Joint Economic and Trade Cooperation Commission, to be held in Bishkek, was finalized and ready to be signed. An Iranian delegation headed by the Minister of Commerce Mohammad Shariatmadari and the head of joint commission will arrive in Bishkek.

The experts have been able to lift main obstacles to mutual economic cooperation and draw up the outlines of the agreement, he added. He told that the agreement embraces all the issues related to banking, customs, communication, energy, industry, engineering and technology.
The two countries` officials are also keen to expand ties in other areas including scientific, vocational and tourism fields, the Kyrgyz official stated. The two nations private sectors` representatives are also participating in the talks.

Earlier in September, President Mohammad Khatami met with Kyrgyzstan President Asghar Akayev on the sidelines of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) meeting in Dushanbe. Khatami said that the two nations should use all their political and economic potentials to expand bilateral cooperation in all areas.
The two nations will achieve constructive results within the framework of their joint economic commission which is to be held in Bishkek, the Iranian president remarked. He also said that regional trade blocks have important role in the world, adding "ECO members states have many cultural and historical commonalties, ample natural resources and vast markets and the strengthening of the organization will ensure the interests of the countries." ..cont'd

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/h_ntr_left.htm

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Recent history:

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav011801.shtml

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Thieves take 10 bn cm out of Kazakh transit pipeline
12-12-01 Kairat Sharipbayev, the director of Kazakhstan's national gas pipeline operator Kaztransgaz, said in Bishkek that his company had discovered that gas bound for Uzbekistan was being siphoned out of the transit pipeline in Kyrgyzstan. Thieves in Kyrgyzstan have taken about 10 bn cm of Kazakhstani gas out of the pipeline so far, Sharipbayev said.
He demanded that Bishkek take action to prevent the thefts, saying that Kaztransgaz would have to build a new pipeline to bypass Kyrgyzstani territory to ensure the security of its gas shipments. This pipeline would follow a 130 km course through south central Kazakhstan, he said.

Gas shortages are common in Kyrgyzstan, which uses Kazakhstani and Uzbekistani gas to fuel its thermal heat and power plants. Both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have halted gas deliveries to Kyrgyzstan several times in recent years.
Uzbekistan's state oil and gas company Uzbekneftegaz stopped delivering natural gas to Kyrgyzstan's Osh region early last month, citing the failure of the Osh region's main gas distributor to pay its 60 mm som ($ 1.3 mm) bn for previous deliveries of fuel. Uzbekneftegaz had also halted gas deliveries to Kyrgyzstan in mid-October after the two sides failed to reach a resolution on issues of supply and payment for previous supplies of fuel

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HOW OIL INTERESTS PLAY OUT IN US BOMBING OF AFGHANISTAN
We have synthesized a number of current analyses into some key facts about how oil ties into the US government's long time involvement in Central Asia and its hopes of accessing the oil and gas riches of the area. Oil is clearly not the only force operating, and this is not a comprehensive analysis, but it is an important piece of a complicated political and economic struggle.

The United States has yet to provide concrete evidence that Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks, but has pursued a bombing campaign anyway against the Taliban and bin Laden with millions of innocent Afghanis caught in the middle. Some analysts are projecting a post-war Afghanistan where the US military is used as "pipeline police." Following are some key points in how US oil interests play into the current so-called "war on terrorism."

CENTRAL ASIA includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, parts of India and China. For a map of the area go to: http://www.askasia.org/image/maps/cntasia1.htm

THE CASPIAN BASIN includes the Caspian Sea and surrounding countries, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Georgia. For a map of the area go to: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/caspgrph.html

THE PERSIAN/ARABIAN GULF STATES include Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman. For a map of the area go to: http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/reference/gulfregion.html

The Central Asian Republics and the Caspian Basin are Staggeringly Resource Wealthy:

The Caspian Basin has an estimated US$5 trillion of oil and gas resources. (1)

Central Asia has enormous quantities of undeveloped oil resources including 6.6 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and 10 billion barrels of undeveloped oil reserves. (2)

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are the two major gas producers in Central Asia. Turkmenistan contains the world's eighth largest natural gas reserves. (3)

......cont'd

http://home.att.net/~m.standridge/EnronAfghan1.html