ECONOMY
AZERBAIJAN KEEN ON GAS TRANSPORTATION TO EUROPEAN MARKETS
President of the State Oil Company Rovnag Abdullayev met with Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, executive director of the Austrian OMV oil firm. W. Ruttenstorfer expressed satisfaction that he arrived in a country where the world’s first oil well was drilled industrially.
W. Ruttenstorfer said today’s Azerbaijan is of great interest not only with its past but also with its further prospects. According to him, OMV is ready to cooperate with SOCAR. OMV CEO provided detailed information about the company’s oil and gas projects in various countries, stressing OMV is the main stakeholder in the NABUCCO project. He pointed out that increased gas demand in Europe raises the importance of the NABUCCO project.
Senior Vice-President of OMV for international gas projects Reihard Mitchek spoke of the NABUCCO project.
R. Abdullayev said Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and South-Caucasus gas pipelines built to export Azerbaijan’s hydrocarbon resources to Europe have been put into service. According to him, natural gas reserves in Azerbaijan are not merely limited to Shahdeniz field as specialists forecast there is plenty of gas in other good structures.
Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer noted Azerbaijan can be a stakeholder or a transit country for transportation of energy resources to Europe via NABUCCO pipeline.
R. Abdullayev stressed Azerbaijan is keen on realization of the NABUCCO project and implementation of the current projects, which allow to export energy resources from the Caspian Sea. The meeting also focused on prospects of further cooperation on oil refining in the third countries and other issues of mutual concern.