Caspian European Club hosts a business forum with the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan

Energy outlooks and possibilities of cooperation with business have been on the agenda today (May 13) at the business forum with participation of Natig Aliyev, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, hosted by the Caspian European Club.

Addressing the business forum, Natig Aliyev stressed meetings within the framework of the Caspian European Club are effective and useful for the development of the business-government dialog.

He referred to the work that Azerbaijan had carried out in the energy sector. According to him, the oil sector is a main pillar of the domestic economy. Last year Azerbaijan reached important for the country agreements in the energy sector and successfully continued the implementation of oil and gas projects. "Azerbaijan secured stability of the oil and gas production. In 2014 the country produced 42 million tonnes of oil a year and 29.6 billion cubic meters of gas", the minister stressed.

According to Natig Aliyev, last year export comprised 35.2 million tonnes of oil. "At that, Azerbaijan accounted for 67.9% of oil exports, namely oil from the Azeri-Chyrag-Gunashli fields and condensate from the Shah Deniz field", the minister said.

Coming to the development of the power industry, Natig Aliyev stressed last year 24 billion KWh of electricity had been generated in the country. Of this, Azerenerji-run grid accounted for 22.4 billion KWh, while the rest amount was generated by small energy companies.
According to Natig Aliyev, earlier technical, geological, technological and other production risk were taken into consideration when making investment into the energy sector, while today's investment is associated largely with the geopolitical situation. "We are watching these trends in the global energy market", he stressed.

The global demand for energy resources is expected to grow by 2035, Natig Aliyev said. According to him, at present there are 1 billion cars in the world. By 2035 this figure will double. Respectively, they must be provided with fuel. In addition, the demand for petrochemicals is growing increasingly. Thus, the role of oil and gas as a main energy source will remain high in the future.

He also referred to the energy market. So, if 10-20 years USA and the EU were the major energy consumers, nowadays the situation is changing rapidly and the demand is increasingly growing in such countries as China, India and Southeast Asian countries.
Addressing the forum, N.Aliyev noted that the major task is to enhance Azerbaijan's role. Important work was carried out in the field of energy last year. The task for coming 5 years is to have Azeri gas supplied to Europe. This work started in 2011 and the major related documents and agreements have already become a reality", the minister said and reminded that the session of the Advisory Council of the Southern Gas Corridor took place in September of the past year.

"We are pleased that on April 29 the government of Italy solved all issues concerning the gas pipeline including Environmental Impact Assessment and compliance with the EU legislation", the minister emphasized.

According to him, operations on Shah Deniz II project, expansion of Sangachal terminal and South-Caucasus Pipeline, are underway ahead of schedule. "30-32% of operations have been performed within the frame of these projects", he said.

He noted that Azeri gas will reach Turkey and Europe in 2019, 2020 respectively.
The Minister also touched a four-sided meeting of Ministers of Energy of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Vice President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič that Ashgabat has recently hosted. According to N.Aliyev, the Turkmen side took an active part at the meeting and supported the Trans-Caspian project as a party. "We agreed to continue negotiations on regular basis", he noted. Apart from this, the Turkmen side expressed an intention to annually sell 30 bcm of gas on its border. Nevertheless, there are still many transit related issues left to solve, the minister noted.

The Minister also touched the restructuring of oil and gas processing sector, development of petrochemical industry.

Business-forum participants' proposals on this subject as well as issues that were of interest to the Caspian European Club member companies were discussed at the end of the event.

Addressing the business forum, Chief Executive Officer of Caspian European Club Telman Aliyev spoke about the Caspian Energy Forum. He expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Energy for stable support and active dialogue with member companies of the Caspian European Club. T.Aliyev thanked Natig Aliyev for a constructive dialogue as well as for attention to proposals and requests made by Caspian European Club member companies during the event.

According to him, within the frame of the business forum the companies obtained answers to questions that were of interest to them and discussed ways of cooperation with the ministry.

Telman Aliyev spoke about the Caspian Energy Forum and noted that the following Caspian Energy Forum would be chaired by Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov on September 30, 2015 in Astana (Kazakhstan).

He said the Caspian European Club was established in June 2002 with active participation of Caspian Energy International Media Group and under support of the largest oil and gas companies working in the Caspian and Black Sea region. His Excellency President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is the Chairman of the Caspian European Club. According to Telman Aliyev, the Caspian European Club has promoted attraction of oil sector revenues into development of the non-oil sector since its establishment. Caspian European Club, which brings together over 5,000 member companies and organisation, is operating in 50 countries around the world, carrying out an active work to maintain the dialogue between government agencies and the private sector.

Minister of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan Natig Aliyev was presented an honorary membership certificate of the Caspian European Club. Certificates were also given to new member companies of the Caspian European Club. Participating in the business-forum of the Caspian European Club were heads of companies and representatives of a number of diplomatic agencies accredited in Azerbaijan.