Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 15
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
The issue of restoration of Azerbaijan's full membership in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) will be considered in April 2016 at a meeting of the Board of the organization, the SOFAZ (State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan) told Trend Oct.15.
Azerbaijan will once again become a full member of EITI in case of fulfilling two basic conditions.
"First of all, Azerbaijan should prepare a comprehensive financial report on the extractive sector for 2014 in accordance with the new standards of the Initiative," said the SOFAZ. "The second condition is to ensure the active participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) within the framework of Azerbaijan's activity in the Initiative. A meeting of the EITI will take place in April 2016, and if both conditions are fulfilled, a decision on full membership of Azerbaijan in the Initiative will be made."
The prospects of Azerbaijan's participation in the EITI were discussed October 8, 2015 during the visit of Chairman of the Board of the Initiative Clare Short in Baku.
In April 2015, EITI lowered the status of Azerbaijan in this structure. The decision was made at the 29th meeting in Brazzaville held April 14-15 after the discussion of the evaluation report on Azerbaijan. Following the discussions, the Board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative decided to lower the membership of Azerbaijan to the candidate status.
Azerbaijan joined to the EITI process in 2003.
Azerbaijan was the first country, passing the EITI evaluation process and obtaining a full member status of the EITI. Azerbaijan was awarded by the EITI in 2009 for full compliance of with the EITI principles and criteria and achievement of success in the sphere of their application the country.
The memorandum was signed on November 24, 2004 joining 21 foreign and local mining companies, including such major companies as SOCAR, BP Azerbaijan, Exxon, Statoil, Total, Lukoil, Unocal, Shell, Devon Enerji to the EITI.
Inpex Azerbaijan, Binaqadi Oil, RAFI Oil, NICO, Apsheron Investment Ltd and GDF SUEZ Exploration Caspian BV, Azerbaijan International Mining Company, which is engaged in gold mining in Azerbaijan, Neftechala Operating Company Ltd, as well as Shirvan Operating Company Limited ultimately joined the memorandum.
Edited by CN
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