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Azerbaijan's Aliyev Fires Two Top Energy Officials BAKU, Jan 28, 2000 -- (Reuters) Azerbaijan's President Haydar Aliyev has sacked two top energy officials after a shortage of fuel oil for power stations forced the ex-Soviet republic to introduce power cuts, state television said on Thursday. Aliyev fired the acting head of gas company Azerigas, Aligusein Jamalov, and the deputy head of state power generator Azenergy, Magomed Novruz, saying "corruption and irresponsible behavior by state employees" were behind the lack of fuel. "People are warming their hands around this fire of corruption, including some who are sitting in this room," he growled in a meeting with his government broadcast on state television. Aliyev also ordered the Cabinet of Ministers to prepare plans for privatizing the electricity distribution network in the next few months. On Tuesday the head of Azenergy, Muslim Imanov, announced a schedule for electricity across the energy-rich republic which leaves some regions with just eight hours of power a day. Even parts of the capital Baku and the main industrial city of Sumgait have only 13 hours of electricity a day. Imanov said lack of investment in the decaying Soviet-era infrastructure coupled with higher electricity demand due to a shortage of natural gas had made the power cuts essential. Azerbaijan produces six billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year, compared to annual demand of 15 bcm. Greater potential gas production is limited by old infrastructure. Prime Minister Artur Rasizade said economizing was now a priority, adding that the power cuts would continue. He said all the country's crude oil resources were being diverted to refineries to produce fuel oil for the power stations. "We've stopped all exports and refineries have stopped cracking and making coke and are only making fuel oil for the power stations now," he told journalists on Thursday.
Azerbaijan's Aliyev Fires Two Top Energy Officials

-- Maher Shalalhashbaz (mahershalalhasshbaz@mail.com), February 01, 2000

Answers

"We've stopped all exports and refineries have stopped cracking and making coke and are only making fuel oil for the power stations now," he told journalists on Thursday...

did you get that?

..."We've stopped all exports and refineries have stopped cracking and making coke and are only making fuel oil for the power stations now," he told journalists on Thursday.

read it until until you get it. serious shite, people.

o)<

mike

-- mike (mike@knuckledragger.com), February 01, 2000.

wow! Got it!

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 01, 2000.

Here's some more information on this evolving story:

Energy crisis hits oil-rich Azerbaijan

BAKU  An unusual fuel oil shortage in this oil-rich nation has crippled Azerbaijan's electricity plants and threatens a nationwide blackout, television reports said.

The shortage, which has depleted reserves at some plants to as little as five hours' worth of fuel, was blamed on theft by corrupt energy sector bureaucrats. Oil exports through the Russian port of Novorossisk have been temporarily suspended, the report said.

While many parts of the former Soviet Union suffer fuel shortages and blackouts, Azerbaijan has been largely exempt because the country sits on huge oil reserves and exports million of barrels a year from the Caspian Sea region.

Oil is so plentiful around the Azerbaijani capital Baku that it once gurgled to the surface without needing to drill wells. The country is to contribute oil to a new, major pipeline through Georgia and Turkey, and oil company executives have referred to the region as a second Persian Gulf.

President Heidar Aliev called an emergency meeting with energy officials Thursday and lit into them, saying the crisis follows embezzlement and corruption by senior officials. He fired the president of the country's national gas company, Azergas, and a deputy chief of the electricity grid.

Aliev also decreed energy saving measures of switching off streetlights and shop window display lights. National television stations have begun working shorter hours. The austerity measures were expected to last five days.

Mail Ragimov, Aliev's economic aide, said that 150,000 metric tons (44 million gallons) of oil would be purchased from Turkmenistan for processing into fuel as soon as possible.

Link:

http://www.russiajournal.com/start/regions/article.cgi?ind=2209

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 01, 2000.