Azerbaijan, Baku, 29 May / Trend A.Akhundov /
The world community is looking forward to the decision of the Shah-Deniz consortium on the route for transporting gas under the second stage of the development of the Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. This statement was maid during the session 'Energy security from the Caspian Sea to Europe: the Changing World Energy Security Dynamics: New prospects for the Southern Energy Corridor' within the forum 'Azerbaijan-USA: Vision for the Future'.
According to the chief adviser of the office on energy of the U.S. Department of State Daniel Stein, the U.S. supports both options, since the ultimate goal of each is to ensure the energy security of Europe.
According to the vice-president of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) on Marketing and Investment Elshad Nasirov, the consortium will make a decision in the coming weeks.
"We commend both routes, but must make a choice in favor of one of them, and, of course, it should be understood by the party, which will be denied," Nasirov said.
Talking about the potential routes, Nasirov said that the classic Nabucco was estimated to be worth about 50 billion euros, but the European side considered this amount to large. Thus, the Nabucco West project was initiated in the amount of 14 billion euros.
"One day of military operations in Iraq had cost the Europeans one billion euros, that is, if they had withdrawn their troops from Iraq a few weeks earlier, there would have been no problems with financing the classic Nabucco project, Nasirov said.
The former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza, the founder and chairman of Global Resource Corporation Mehmet Ogutchu, executive director of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan Shahmar Movsumov, Azerbaijani MP Mukhtar Babayev and others spoke at the session about the role of Azerbaijan in the energy security of Europe and the prospects of cooperation between Azerbaijan, USA and Europe in the field of energy.