By Sabina Ahmedova, Trend
Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Rafael Harpaz highlighted the excellent cooperation on energy issues between his country and Azerbaijan.
"You are one of the main suppliers of our oil. But we are very keen to learn from your experience on natural gas because we found a lot of natural gas. It is natural that we will do so," Ambassador Harpaz said in an interview with Trend on July 16.
"We are very happy for our cooperation in the energy sector with Azerbaijan. We are now entering a new phase. Israel starts to be an exporter of natural gas. We don't have experience in it. You have a lot of experience. We don't have engineers that are dealing with this."
Israel, said the ambassador, was looking to Azerbaijan as model upon which to mold its energy legislation and funds, similar to SOFAZ. The ambassador said that a delegation from the Knesset - the Israeli parliament -came to Baku to learn from Azerbaijan's experience on how to manage revenues from gas, portfolio of investments, how to support the budget and long-term projects.
Revenues from natural gas will start coming in the next two-three years, which the ambassador said was both "good and bad."
"It is good because it is more money for the country. It is bad because we don't want to get the Dutch disease, which makes currency too strong and harms exports."
"Azerbaijan's experience is highly appreciated by us and we are looking forward to learning from your experience in this area."
In addition I should mention that the areas of agriculture, water technology, telecommunication, medical technologies - a lot of cooperation on those areas. "