BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 5. The Baku Energy Week held from May 31 through June 3 has been the most prominent event of the last week.
During the event, numerous guests from various countries expressed their support for cooperation with Azerbaijan in the oil and gas field, as well is in renewables sector.
At the same time, on the sidelines of the event, Azerbaijan's State Oil Company (SOCAR) has managed to hold several meeting and conclude a number of significant contracts. For instance, SOCAR and Boston Consulting Group have agreed to jointly develop the use of digital and innovative technologies at enterprises. Together with Uzbekistan's state oil company, Uzbekneftegaz, SOCAR has signed a protocol on the creation of a joint venture for trading.
One of the most significant documents inked was the agreement with the Hungarian MVM Group company on the sale of natural gas in the amount of 100 million cubic meters. The start of deliveries of the volumes of gas specified in the contract is envisaged in the 4th quarter of this year.
Moreover, SOCAR and Energy China International have discussed the joint development of renewable energy projects.
Following the meeting with the management of the Energy Ministry, it was announced that French TotalEnergies will build wind and solar power plants with a capacity of 250 MW each, as well as energy storage systems in Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan, while Nobel Energy Management will build a 400 MW solar power plant in Nakhchivan.
At the same time, TotalEnergies has also announced its plans to start production at the Absheron field in 2023. The company plans to carry out production processes through the use of green technologies with minimal CO2 emissions, Régis Agut, Managing Director and Country Chair at TotalEnergies Azerbaijan, said.
Meanwhile, as Vice President for Communications and External Relations of BP in the Caspian region Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli told reporters on the sidelines of the Baku Energy Week event, bp has almost completed drilling an appraisal well for the deep gas project at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli block in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. He also noted that bp plans to send the upper structures of the Azeri-Central-East platform on the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block to the sea this June.
Regarding the solar power plant project in Azerbaijan's Jabrayil, Aslanbayli noted that the commercial and technical parameters of this projects have been almost agreed upon, and the process of clearing the territory of mines is almost completed.
Moreover, another European country has expressed interest in getting access to Azerbaijani energy resources. As State Secretary of Moldova’s Ministry of Energy Constantin Borosan told Trend, the country hopes to purchase gas from Azerbaijan soon. At the same time, the country is interested in joining the Solidarity Ring, which entails the delivery of additional gas volumes from Azerbaijan to Europe, he added.
Meanwhile, as Geoffrey Pyatt, US Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources, who was on a visit in Azerbaijan to attend the Baku Energy Week, said during a briefing, the US is ready to support Azerbaijan in producing green hydrogen.
"Green hydrogen is one of the areas of high priority for the Government of Azerbaijan. The US will lead globally in this area, because of the incentives included in our Inflation Reduction Act. We have huge new green hydrogen projects coming online soon in the US, implemented by such companies as ExxonMobile, for example. Obvious, there is potential to do a lot in this area with Azerbaijan," he said.
Furthermore, as was decided during the 35th OPEC+ Ministerial Meeting held on June 4, Azerbaijan is expected to adjust its crude production to 551,000 barrels per day throughout 2024. The overall crude oil production level for both OPEC and non-OPEC countries will be set at 40.46 mb/d, as the block agreed.