Baku, Azerbaijan, April 9
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
Iran would certainly look at joining the Southern Gas Corridor - the project designed to transport Caspian gas to the European markets, Sam Barden, director of Wimpole International, an energy market development company told Trend on "This week in focus" program episode.
He said that the biggest issue for Iran is to have as much control over the pricing of oil and gas as possible.
"Iran will certainly be in a cooperative mood, but that will be very tough to negotiate, because ultimately Iran would want to have as much control over their pricing," Barden said.
Last week Iran and world powers reached a framework agreement on implementation of some restrictions over Iran's nuclear program for at least a decade. In exchange, the EU and the US will stop imposing sanctions on Iran after reaching a comprehensive nuclear deal (expected to be achieved by June 30).
With regard to the implications of the removal of the sanctions against Iran on Azerbaijan, Barden believes that there will be positive impact both for Azerbaijan and Iran in terms of cooperation.
At the same time he does not exclude the possible competition - Iran has got a lot of hydroharbons, and there is an interest for Iranian hydroharbons, in particular from the European side.
"But if the littoral nations of the Caspian region, which include Iran and Azerbaijan, if they decide to cooperate in certain frameworks, particularly in pricing of gas on international markets, then I think will be very positive for Azerbaijan," Barden said.
With regard to the perspective for Iran to join the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), Barden believes that the country can buy a share in a project.
Barden said "it all seems negotiable", adding that Iran may have an option to buy a share in the project.
"Some of the gas from the Caspian oilfields would flow through it [TANAP]. The most important thing will be the mechanism of pricing of the gas that goes into it," he added.
Rovnag Abdullayev, the president of Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR, said on April 4 that the company has some attractive offers for the sale of a stake in TANAP.
TANAP is being realized within the Southern Gas Corridor project, initiated by Azerbaijan and envisages the transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field from the Georgian-Turkish border to the western borders of Turkey. TANAP's initial capacity is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas will be delivered to Turkey and the rest of the volume to Europe.
Overall Barden believes that the removal of sanctions on Iran will definitely affect the global energy markets, with more Iranian oil and gas flowing into markets, where previously they haven't been able to reach to.
"There could be some very interesting and positive developments for the global energy markets," he said, adding that we will get more price stability and much better security of supply.
Aygun Badalova is Trend Agency's staff journalist, follow her on Twitter:@AygunBadalova
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