BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 30
By Sadraddin Aghjayev - Trend:
Azerbaijan's international cooperation in the oil and gas industry ensures its financial stability, Deputy Director-General of the Russian National Energy Institute Alexander Frolov told Trend last week.
According to Frolov, the stability of the oil and gas sector in Azerbaijan is strong, which is caused by the presence of a significant resource base, and this is connected with the interest in the country from many Western, Russian and Turkish companies.
“In addition, Azerbaijan's cooperation with these players gives it guarantees of financial stability, as this ensures investments, in specific projects of the State Oil Company (SOCAR),” he said.
It was also reported last week that SOCAR Turkey, a subsidiary of Azerbaijan’s state oil company, will establish a joint venture with AzerTelecom LLC, a telecommunication operator that connects Azerbaijan to the global internet network. The Transanatolian Fiber Taf Telecommunications Services JV was greenlighted by the Turkish Competition Authority.
Meanwhile, it was reported that the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) and Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR are in talks for cooperation on new projects. There are being held discussions on how can the BSTDB support new SOCAR projects, but no decision has been made so far about this.
In the past week, it became known that SOCAR Energy Ukraine, a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) has doubled the supplies of Azerbaijani oil to Ukraine [since Aug.1 compared to the previous period].
Reportedly, the exports grew due to reaching the maximum level of oil processing at the Ukrtatnafta refinery in Kremenchuk [city] – 14,000 tons per day. So, exports of Azerbaijani oil to Ukraine reached 300,000 tons per month (previously – 150,000 tons per month).
Besides, SOCAR has completely fulfilled its plans for the 2020 exploration drilling. SOCAR units drilled 55,906 meters, fulfilling the plan by 98.5 percent. The plan for operational drilling was also fulfilled by 98.5 percent. In addition, the company conducted 2D and 3D seismic researches on an area of 569 square kilometers and 5,031 square kilometers, respectively.
Together with foreign companies, SOCAR drilled 8,758 meters for exploration purposes.
According to the last week’s report, the construction of the Serbia-Bulgaria gas interconnector Nis-Dimitrovgrad that will give access to Azerbaijani gas can begin in September. This will give another direction of supply. It’s also important to work on the diversification of suppliers because of the uncertain situation in the global gas market.
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