Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. U.Ismayilova / Sabit Bagirov, the former president of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and present head of the Fund for Assistance to the Development of Azerbaijan's Entrepreneurship and Market Economy, stated that support of the project regarding laying of the TransCaspian oil and gas pipeline by the US will promote a perceived decrease of risks linked with these projects.
SOCAR and the US' Agency of Development signed a grant agreement to define costs and materials for transporting oil and gas pipelines to transfer oil and gas from Middle Asia via Azerbaijan to Europe.
"It is still early to speak about the project's efficiency," Bagirov said. However, the signing demonstrates that the US pays more attention to regional development and energy security.
Implementation of the project will promote development of interests in investors and financial institutions to TransCaspian Pipeline.
"We should determine the ecological requirements, the expert said. Touching upon possible ecological problems in implementing these projects, which have been proposed by Russia, the expert noted that they will not be an obstacle in this direction. Russia has already implemented the project 'Blue Stream' and is planning to implement the project on construction of the North European gas pipeline," Bagirov noted.