New Europe newspaper publishes article on Azerbaijan
Baku, February 25 (AZERTAC). The New Europe newspaper has published an article titled “Azerbaijan`s State Oil Fund backs EU Southern Corridor”. The article features an interview of Executive Director of the State Oil Fund of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOFAZ) Shahmar Movsumov.
The article says: “The State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) will start financing the share of the state in the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) and “potentially” could finance Nabucco West or the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which will link up to TANAP and carry Azerbaijani gas supplies to Europe,” SOFAZ Executive Director Shahmar Movsumov told New Europe in Baku.
“We are going to start financing the share of the government in TANAP project. Right now it`s at a very preliminary stage. We have not yet identified the share, how much the project is going to cost and all these details,” Movsumov said at the State Oil Fund`s headquarters with a wide-sweeping view of the Caspian Sea.
TAP and Nabucco West have agreed to offer up to 50% of their shares to the Shah Deniz gas consortium - made up of Azerbaijan`s state oil company SOCAR and leading European energy partners.
Asked if there is a possibility that Azerbaijan`s State Oil Fund could become involved financing TAP or Nabucco, Movsumov said, “Potentially yes. But it`s all just talks. Right now there is nothing on the table,” he said.
“We are constantly looking for projects which have the capacity to give a serious boost to development,” Movsumov said. “For example TANAP will be of significant impact.” “We are going forward at a full speed with TANAP. SOCAR has hired a number of people working day and night on the TANAP project, bringing to a financial stage where we will start financing it. But obviously TANAP is not the end of the route. We need to continue it and whether it`s going to be TAP or Nabucco West, that`s still being discussed,” Movsumov said. “First we have to identify which way,” he said, referring to financing Nabucco West or TAP.
Asked if Russia`s South Stream is competition for the EU-backed Southern Gas Corridor, Movsumov said, “The European market is big enough for those supplies that are coming both from Russia and our region. I don`t see there is any competition. The Turkish market is a huge market also for gas.” He noted that natural gas is environmentally friendly compared to other sources of energy plus the security issues with nuclear power, “will all drive the demand for gas further and there will be enough market for both. I don`t see big competition there”.
“The potential of the Caspian Sea is huge but in order to expand this capacity you need to drill. Unfortunately, in the Caspian Sea we have only three oil rigs and all of them are booked for the next five-ten years. That`s why State Oil Fund is staring a new project this year. We want to finance construction of new drilling rig and we already have major international companies line up for that rig. For example with Absheron, they have to drill, they have to start but they don`t have a rig,” he added, referring to the offshore gas field in Azerbaijan`s sector of the Caspian Sea.
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