Azerbaijan, UK discuss energy relations
Baku, September 30 (AZERTAC). UK minister of state for energy and climate change, Charles Hendry, have had separate meetings with Azerbaijan's industry and energy minister, Natig Aliyev, and State Oil Company (SOCAR) President Rovnag Abdullayev to discuss development of the Shafag-Asiman gas field and construction of a new oil refinery.
Last year BP and SOCAR signed a production sharing agreement on the Shafag-Asiman offshore gas condensate field.
The meetings focused on the construction of a new oil and gas refinery and chemical complex in Azerbaijan, and Hendry proposed cooperation in this sector.
The meeting also discussed the prospects for cooperation on alternative and renewable energy. Aliyev said Azerbaijan had already launched a project to produce 5.5 MW of power from renewable sources. Aliyev praised cooperation between Azerbaijan and the UK in the oil and gas sector, saying it had been continuing successfully since 1994. He also proposed outlining further priorities and directions of cooperation.
Abdullayev also praised energy cooperation with Britain. The SOCAR president noted foreign oil majors, including BP, had played an important role in the achievements of Azerbaijan's oil and gas sector in recent years. He hailed the SOCAR-BP cooperation on the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, Shah Deniz and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan projects.
Abdullayev said Azerbaijan was open to foreign investment and carefully considered cooperation proposals from all companies.
BP has just proposed a new option for the export of Azerbaijani gas to Europe. The route will pass through Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Croatia. BP says the route makes as much use as possible of existing pipelines and would be cheaper than the Nabucco pipeline, one of the other projects bidding to export Azerbaijani gas to Europe.
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