Baku, August 24, AZERTAC

“Moldova is interested in participation of Azerbaijani companies in the development of hydrocarbon resources,” said Ambassador of the Republic of Moldova to Azerbaijan Gheorghe Leuca as he met with the Caspian Energy’s delegation headed by President and Editor-in-Chief of Caspian Energy International Media Group Natalya Aliyeva.

In the course of the meeting the sides discussed various topics of cooperation within the framework of the Caspian European Club (Caspian Business Club) and Caspian Energy International Media Group, possibilities of expansion of contacts on the informational level as well as participation of Moldovan companies in international Caspian Energy Forum which is due in Baku on December 7.

Speaking about bilateral relations between the states, the Ambassador noted the necessity of resuming the work of the intergovernmental commission for trade-economic cooperation at this stage because the last session of the commission took place in 2012 and quite a long time has passed in order to get back to actions which are important for improvement of the economic relations. According to him, plans of the protocol include not only economic and trade but also other areas of cooperation such as cultural-humanitarian, education, healthcare, social protection of population as well as Diaspora related issues.

“We expressed readiness to hold the session of the international commission till the end of September. First of all, our co-chairman, who is also a Vice Premier and Minister of Economy, Oktavian Kalmik and an accompanying delegation must arrive. First Vice Premier Yagub Eyyubov is a co-chairman representing the Azerbaijani side,” the Ambassador emphasized.

Speaking about the energy sector of Moldova, the Ambassador noted that development operations were held as early as in the 70s of the past century and continued in 1984. “We only have three fields. As the depth of drilling of the majority of wells reached up to 1000m and there were only few with the depth reaching a little over 3000m, nowadays investments are required to continue drilling and rehabilitating the fields. Geological prospect of discovery of certain huge hydrocarbon reserves has been revealed,“ Gheorghe Leuca noted.

“The government has announced an open international tender and we are interested in having Azerbaijan, as one of the experienced global developers and our friend, also other countries participated in it.”

At the end of the interview the Ambassador gave an exclusive interview to Caspian Energy. In the course of the interview he touched the possibilities of development of bilateral relations, boosting of the economic and investment cooperation, spoke about prospects of development of the energy market, also touched the issues of development of the tourism sector and energy cooperation.