Energy in Azerbaijan

[Azad]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

All that cheap oil will stunt R&D for alternative sources of energy and continue destroying the future for life on earth at a accelerating rate. You can look at the future of our earth by simply watching Venus.

They key is in keeping a constant population of around 6 billion people on this planet. Focusing on quality of life, instead of growth.
This should cheer you up.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan's Central Bank Downplays Rumors Of Fresh Devaluation Of Manat
RFERL
By Liz Fuller
August 24, 2016

Just five weeks after Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev established a Financial Stability Council, the country's banks are experiencing an unprecedented demand for foreign currency. Yet even though Azerbaijan's currency, the manat, has lost 9 percent in value since late May, the Central Bank insisted on August 22 that a further devaluation -- which would be the third since February 2015 -- is not in the cards.

The news portal Caucasus Knot quoted the Central Bank as saying the State Oil Fund (SOCAR) is currently selling $50 million per day to local banks, while demand is 12 times as high at $600 million. Consequently, some banks have suspended sales of foreign currency, while others have imposed limits ranging from $100 to $500 per customer.

The Central Bank devalued the manat in mid-February 2015 by 33.5 percent vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar. The manat lost a further 47 percent in value in December 2015. As of that month, the exchange rate was 1.56 manats to the dollar, compared to 0.78 manats to the dollar 10 months earlier.

Bloomberg reported in mid-March, quoting RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service, that the manat could lose a further 10 percent in value. A new slide in value got under way in June, and the exchange rate had reached nearly 1.64 manats to the dollar by closing on August 24, from 1.48 in late May.

The pressure on Azerbaijan's economy comes largely from the steep fall in oil prices over the past two years, given that oil sales account for the lion's share of the country's revenues. In February, the Azerbaijani parliament was constrained to revise the planned budget for 2016, which was originally predicated on oil prices of $50 per barrel of Azeri Light, because the oil price had plummeted to $25 per barrel.

In a bid to minimize the impact on the economy of the decline in oil revenues, Aliyev set up the Financial Stability Council, which is chaired by longtime Prime Minister Artur Rasizade, and tasked it with drafting within one month proposals to underpin macroeconomic stability and "avert any further negative developments in the financial sphere." But analysts questioned whether and how a body that essentially duplicates the cabinet will be able to provide a plan that will balance the diverging priorities of the Finance Ministry, the Economy Ministry, and the Central Bank.

Last year's double devaluation has already taken its toll on the country's banks. The government was constrained to bail out the International Bank of Azerbaijan, the country's largest, while six smaller banks were forced to close, according to Intellinews.com.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

25 / Օգոստոս / 2016
Սեպտեմբերի 3-ին Ադրբեջանում դոլարի արժեքը կկազմի 2,02 մանաթ

http://lratvakan.am/?p=73040&l=am/septemberi+3-in+adrbejanum+dolari+argeqy+kkazmi+202+manat

Սեպտեմբերի 3-ին Ադրբեջանում դոլարի արժեքը կկազմի 2,02 մանաթ


Ադրբեջանի կառավարությունը հրաժարվել է մանաթի լողացող փոխարժեքից եւ դարձյալ կտրուկ արժեզրկում է սկսում: Նույնիսկ հայտնի է նաեւ արժեզրկման ժամկետը` սեպտեմբերի 3-ը: Այս մասին, ինչպես հաղորդում է «Արմենպրես»-ը, istiqlal.az կայքին հայտնել են բանկային հատվածի աղբյուրները: Դրանց խոսքով` դոլարի վաճառքն ադրբեջանում գրեթե դադարեցվել է, վերակենդանացել է սեւ շուկան:
«Արժեզրկմանը պատրաստվելու նպատակով բանկերը պաշտոնապես նվազագույնի են հասցրել դոլարի վաճառքը եւ արտարժույթը հանել սեւ շուկա. այն գտնվում է բանկերի ամբողջական վերահսկողության տակ», -գրում է ադրբեջանական կայքը: Այն նշում է, որ ներկայում պաշտոնապես 1 դոլարը արժե 1,62 մանաթ, իսկ իրականում` 1,70: «Մոտ օրերին սպասվում է 25 տոկոս արժեզրկում, դոլարի փոխարժեքը կդառնա 2,02 մանաթ», -համոզմունք է հայտնում կայքը:

[armnuke]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Not sure if serious of joking..

[HyeSocialist]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

They key is in keeping a constant population of around 6 billion people on this planet. Focusing on quality of life, instead of growth.
This should cheer you up.

This is why Armenia shouldn't focus on a growth oriented economy, but a sustainable one. Those should be the driving forces.

The Azeris based theirs on growth, and now they're going to be disciplined by the markets they failed to understand.

[Mher]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

A reminder that we just passed the peak season of oil price. This is when things are supposed to be great for them. I can't wait to see the situation in January. And fortunately, after October, they can't distract their population with war. We'll have the whole winter to hope for their internal destruction.

[Joseph]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

http://www.civilnet.am/news/2016/09/09/Baku-Experiencing-Difficulties-to-Fulfill-its-Gas-Commitments/300003

Baku Experiencing Difficulties to Fulfill its Gas Commitments

[londontsi]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Loss of $8bn: they in Azerbaijan have found the scapegoat to blame for currency crisis

https://eadaily.com/en/news/2016/09/05/loss-of-8bn-they-in-azerbaijan-have-found-the-scapegoat-to-blame-for-currency-crisis

September 5th, 2016


In crisis-stricken Azerbaijan, they are prosecuting the former chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan Jahangir Gajiyev.

Gajiyev and seven more people are facing charges of embezzlement, abuse of office, forgery and illegal purchase, possession, sale and transportation of firearms.

Gajiyev pleads non-guilty and blames Azerbaijani Finance Minister Samir Sharifov. He said that the audit committee of the bank consisted mostly of finance ministry employees: “They sat in the bank and approved all of our decisions. The indictment contains no single fact related to people from the audit committee, the financial council or the board,” Gajiyev said.

“Sharifov must be summoned to the court and must be seated near me. They say that some loans have not been redeemed, but their redemption deadlines are not over yet. Everybody knows that as many as 2,000,000 people in the country have loan debt. If so, we should eliminate the banking system and detain those who issue loans,” Gajiyev said.

Sharifov’s reaction was quick. He blamed Gajiyev for politicizing the trial. “His statements are groundless. He just wants to distract public attention and to politicize the crimes,” Sharifov said.

The ministry’s press office notes that Gajiyev abused his office and lent billions of US dollars to his relatives and friends. “In many cases, he sent the loans to his offshore companies and embezzled the money,” says the source.

“In Oct 2009-Mar 2015, despite the Supervisory Council’s decisions, they lent legal and physical entities a total of 1.3bn manats, 1.4bn US dollars and 300mn euros. In the meantime, they withdrew from the country as much as 3.7bn US dollars and 1.1bn euros and used the money for buying the bills of newly established offshore companies. Later the funds were transferred to the projects where the key beneficiary was Gajiyev,” says the press office of the finance ministry.

As regards the loans approved by the Supervisory Council there were seven such loans worth 250mn US dollars and 261mn manats. And all of them have already been repaid.

As you may see, having shut down dozens of banks, the authorities have broken their teeth on almighty Gajiyev, who has taken billions of US dollars out of the country on the instruction of his influential relative (former National Security Minister Eldar Mahmudov – edit.). Hence, his key goal was to get illegal benefits for the offshore companies, which borrowed loans from European and U.S. banks and failed to repay them. The debts were repaid by Azerbaijani banks at the expense of their customers.

These illegal deals have made many Azerbaijani banks insolvent.

Many experts have criticized the ministry’s attitude. According to expert Gubada Ibadoglu, this means that for six years the Central Bank, the Finance Ministry and the State Customs Office neglected the banking sector and that the biggest bank of the South Caucasus was engaged in embezzlement. “In democratic countries, such a situation would cause financial supervisors to resign and to face prosecution. The 5bn US dollars illegally taken out of the country and the billions of manats issued as unsecured loans are the key reasons why our national currency is facing such problems,” Ibadoglu says on Facebook.

Expert Samir Isayev share Ibadoglu’s opinion: “For six years the Supervisory Council (the Finance Ministry) did nothing to prevent the withdrawal of funds from the country. So, they are as much responsible as Gajiyev is,” he says on Facebook.

According to the deputy head of the Assistance to Economic Initiatives NGO Rovshan Agayev, a total of $8bn has been embezzled at the International Bank of Azerbaijan. “They lent some people as much as $50mn-60mn, used the money for their own purposes and registered the unrepaid loans as problematic and hopeless,” Agayev says.

The other channel was offshore companies. “They bought the bills of those companies as a means for taking money out of the country. Those $8bn would suffice Azerbaijan’s education for 7-8 years, health care for 20 years and social security for 5 years,” Agayev says.

He blames not only Gajiyev but also all the country’s financial managers and government officials. The leader of the People’s Front of Azerbaijan Ali Kerimli says that Azerbaijan’s financial system has slumped. “Manat has been killed and is being given artificial respiration so as nobody can notice its death. The banks’ decision to stop selling US dollar will shortly result in a shortage of imported goods, the prices will go up, manat will fall even lower. And all this is going on in a country that has earned as much as $135bn on oil over the last few years,” Kerimli says.

What the finance ministry means is that for many years Azerbaijan’s banking sector has been uncontrolled. Were it not for the slumping oil prices and the impending financing collapse, the authorities might well continue ignoring this situation.

Maksud Talybli, specially for EADaily (Baku)
Подробнее: https://eadaily.com/en/news/2016/09/...urrency-crisis

[Vrej1915]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan: Scapegoating Adam Smith
September 23, 2016

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/80626

Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, has finally acknowledged that the energy-export-dependent country is in the grips of a severe recession. But in a major policy speech, the Azerbaijani leader shifted blame for the fiscal woes from his administration to an economic theoretician who has been dead for over 225 years.

In a sign that confidence in Azerbaijan’s economy is rapidly evaporating, commercial banks felt compelled in late August to halt sales of foreign currencies. Speaking in the provincial city of Sabirabad on September 17, Aliyev trod gingerly around the issue of the government’s finances, not offering specifics. But he nevertheless provided a big hint that the decline in global energy prices had delivered a big hit on the state budget, which for more than a decade has been dependent on oil and natural gas export revenue.

“As everyone knows, in connection with the fall in the price of oil in the world, our revenues have contracted,” he said. “If the [oil] price has fallen by 75 percent, then our revenues contract by 75 percent.”

Aliyev did not criticize the government for its handling of the economy. Instead, he bemoaned the vagaries of market economics.

“It was thought we had a market economy that self-regulates and balances everything out. But life shows us that that is not the case,” Aliyev said. “Having a market economy does not mean that everything will go according to expectations.”

Those comments seemed to pin responsibility for the Azerbaijani economy’s reversal of fortunes on flaws in the theories espoused by Adam Smith, the pioneering political economist of the 18th century who posited that an “invisible hand” works to correct imbalances in a market economic system.

Smith’s theories, however, pertain to free societies, in which individuals have the broad ability to use their own initiative to pursue economic opportunities. Since the Soviet collapse in 1991, Azerbaijan has evolved into one of the most closed societies in Eurasia, where the flow of information and free speech are tightly controlled, and economic opportunities tend to be monopolized by political elite groups.

On September 22, Michel Forst, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, asserted that civil society in Azerbaijan “has been paralyzed” by repressive measures carried out by the government.

“Access to information for civil society is restricted in Azerbaijan, despite existent legislation on access to information,” noted a statement, which was issued after Forst completed a nine-day fact-finding mission to Azerbaijan. “The traditional approach by authorities to the requests for information is that of rejection.”

Azerbaijani officials duly rejected Forst’s statement as “biased,” even as the rapporteur praised the government “for its excellent cooperation and efforts to ensure that I could make the most of my visit.”

Aliyev’s administration has long recognized the economy’s over-dependence on the energy sector. In his inaugural address following his re-election in 2013, Aliyev claimed that the government had succeeded in diversifying the economy. “I think that giant strides to diversify the country's economy have been taken over the past decade, and this policy will continue,” he stated. “We must strive to ensure that our non-oil economy will double over the next 10 years. This goal was set a year ago and I think we have the capacity to achieve it.”

The depth of the current crisis, along with the government’s apparent restricted means to stimulate growth, suggests that Aliyev’s diversification claims were vastly overblown.

In his Sabirabad speech, Aliyev seemed to pin hopes for turning the country’s economy around on the revival of the cotton sector. He noted that the cotton sector had experienced a precipitous decline during the post-Soviet era: in the 1970s, about 300,000 hectares were under cotton cultivation, whereas today cotton is grown on only about 52,000 hectares. Yields have fallen correspondingly, going from about 1 million tons annually in the 1970s to about 30,000 tons in 2015, according to Aliyev.

Aliyev studiously avoided blaming the government for the sector’s collapse, adhering to his line that the country had been burned by its trust in the market.

The president painted an optimistic future for cotton in Azerbaijan, predicting that the yield would be about 100,000 tons this year, while setting a target of 300,000 tons for 2017. He also pledged that the state would invest roughly $100 million to build plants that could turn raw cotton and wool into finished products, according to a report distributed by the Russian news agency Sputnik. Aliyev indicated that government investment would focus on two areas – the city of Ganja and the Mingachevir Region.

What Aliyev did not specify was where the government will get the money to realize its development plans. The state budget does not have the cash to spare. Officials could dip into the State Oil Fund, which reported this summer that its assets totaled over $35 billion.

The lack of a clear-cut plan to achieve the dramatic increase in cotton production in the coming years has some rights watchdogs worried that gain will be achieved through the use of forced labor, in which the government mobilizes state employees to gather the harvest. Such practices are common in Central Asian cotton-producing states, especially Uzbekistan.

Aliyev made no secret that higher cotton yields were urgently needed to replenish Azerbaijan’s greatly diminished state coffers. With energy prices expected to languish, Aliyev’s administration is hoping that expanded revenue from cotton cultivation can raise employment levels while plugging budgetary gaps.

“It’s necessary to facilitate the flow of foreign currency into Azerbaijan,” he said. Thus, the production of goods for export has special significance.”

“I am sure that from now on cotton farming will grow at a rapid pace and reach a vast scale,” Aliyev continued. “As I mentioned before, both the people and the state will benefit as a result.”

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/80626

========

Azari Matematika:
In CCCP , 300.000 Hktar= 1 Million Ton > 1 hektar = 3,3 Ton
In 2016, 52.000 Hektar = 30.000 Ton ???? > 1 Hectar = 0,576 Ton

[Azad]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Loss of $8bn: they in Azerbaijan have found the scapegoat to blame for currency crisis

Gajiyev and seven more people are facing charges of embezzlement, abuse of office, forgery and illegal purchase, possession, sale and transportation of firearms.

Gajiyev pleads non-guilty and blames Azerbaijani Finance Minister Samir Sharifov.

http://cdn.someecards.com/someecards/usercards/1340085129635_3237407.png