President Aliyev: Azerbaijani gas to meet demand of both Europe, regional countries
The Southern Gas Corridor project will be implemented successfully and Azerbaijan will provide both European countries and the countries of the region with natural gas for many years to come.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made the remark taking part in the 22nd World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul on July 10.
The 22nd World Petroleum Congress, under the sponsorship of Turkish Petroleum, runs from June 9 to June 13 at CNR EXPO with 20,000 participants, 5,000 decision-makers, and 50 ministers from over 100 countries.
With the theme “Bridges to our Energy Future”, the Congress is addressing the changes in the industry within an unstable and uncertain world. It will provide the platform for open dialogue to build bridges between consumers and producers, governments and industry, academia and financiers, as well as leaders and society.
He went on to add that the Southern Gas Corridor project consists of four parts.
“The first one is the Shah Deniz gas field. The Shah Deniz 2 project is complete by 93 percent and will be fully completed soon. The second one is the South Caucasus Pipeline which connects Azerbaijan and Georgia. The work on this project is complete by 87 percent. The third and the most important part is the TANAP gas pipeline which is complete by 77 percent. We will mark the execution of this project next year. Finally, the fourth part is the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, which is complete by 44 percent,” he said, adding that all these four important projects constitute the Southern Gas Corridor.
The president noted that $40 billion worth of investment is needed for the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project and the major part of this amount has already been invested.
The president pointed out that seven countries participate in the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania and Italy.
“Three Balkan countries can also join the Southern Gas Corridor in the future and relevant work is underway in this regard. That’s to say, we are expanding this project’s geography and can further expand in the future, because this project is an initiative benefiting every country,”said the president.
Implementation of this project shows that all countries and companies participating in it get benefit, said President Aliyev.
“We have created such a great cooperation format in which both producers, that’s to say, Azerbaijan and transit countries, as well as consumers work on the basis of common interests. This balance of interests paved way for the successful implementation of this major project, because there are quite a lot of technical, financial, economic and political issues,” said the president.
The head of state said that Azerbaijan is an ancient land of oil.
Azerbaijan’s proven gas reserve is estimated at 2.6 trillion cubic meters and in the coming years, over decades, Azerbaijani gas will meet the demand of both European countries and countries of the region, added President Aliyev.
“Indeed, we believe that Azerbaijan is a home of oil, because the first industrial method of oil production was applied in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1846,” he added.
President Aliyev noted that the year of 1994 was also remarkable for the signing of the “Contract of Century” which today plays the main role in filling the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
“Afterwards, a very rich gas field Shah Deniz was discovered in Azerbaijan. The reserve of this field is estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters. It is one of the largest fields on a global scale. Today, it is the resource base of the Southern Gas Corridor. Thus, currently, Azerbaijan has turned into a producer and exporter of oil and gas,” said the president.
President Aliyev said that today, gas is the main factor ensuring energy security in the world.
“Azerbaijani gas is the only new gas source to be transported to Europe, because all other gas sources are active. The new source has already been discovered and these gas reserves will be delivered to European markets through the new pipeline. That’s to say, our advantage is existence of both factors. This is a serious step towards the energy diversification,” added the president.
President Aliyev said that Azerbaijan understands its responsibility.
“We well understand that the projects which we are implementing together with partner countries, will ensure the energy balance and energy security of many countries and help them,” he stressed.
President noted that usually, the countries which are not rich in oil think that if they had oil, they would be able to benefit it. But I can say that oil can bring both benefit and problems. It depends on how you benefir oil. We in Azerbaijan try to turn “black gold” into human capital and I believe we have achieved that. First of all, we protect our oil revenues in a very transparent way,” he added.
President Aliyev pointed out that the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan is one of the most transparent funds in the world and was awarded by the UN.
“The first condition is full transparency. Information about the revenues of the State Oil Fund is regularly provided to the public. The second issue is the appropriate use of oil revenues. First of all, we directed the oil revenues to the infrastructure projects. Today, we export not only oil and gas, but also the energy generated at dozens of power stations which we have built in recent years,” he added.
President Aliyev pointed out that Azerbaijan has allocated large funds for infrastructure projects, building schools and hospitals.
“We are seriously fighting poverty. In fact, oil sector doesn’t create many jobs. By directing oil revenues to other sectors, we managed to reduce the level of poverty and unemployment, which currently stand at approximately 5-6 percent,” he said.
Further on, Ilham Aliyev said that big amounts of foreign investments are made in Azerbaijan and the country, in turn, makes investments abroad.
“Brotherly Turkey is in the first place here. To date, $10 billion worth of investments have been made in Turkey’s energy sector. This figure will nearly double in the coming years. In one word, today, when talking about energy security, the projects that we implemented come to mind,” he added.
President Aliyev went on further saying that Turkey is a great power on a global scale.
Turkey has a decisive word on many issues of the world agenda, he added.
“All this success has been achieved under the leadership of my brother, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Today, Turkey is developing successfully and rapidly. Turkey has passed a great and honorable way under the leadership of President Erdogan. Today’s conference is a proof of that. As Turkey is becoming stronger, we are also strengthening,” said the president.
President Aliyev pointed out that Turkey and Azerbaijan stand by each other on all issues.
“We have a multifaceted cooperation which covers all spheres,” he said, adding that the unity and cooperation of Turkey and Azerbaijan in energy sphere enables the countries to implement a lot of important strategic projects, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline and TANAP projects.
President Erdogan also hailed importance of regional gas projects. He said Turkey is becoming an important energy hub of the region thanks to such important projects as the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline projects.
“To become a strong country, it is necessary to have considerable volumes of energy resources or participate in energy routes,” Erdogan noted.
Unfortunately, energy resources are now becoming the cause of clashes, he said, adding that Turkey has always advocated that they should be the subject of a dialogue.
Erdogan further expressed support for the implementation of other energy projects and pointed out the significance of the Turkish Stream. Meetings with officials
Prior to the Congress Presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey held a meeting and had a dinner together in Istanbul.
During the meeting, they hailed successful development of friendly and brotherly Azerbaijani-Turkish relations and the high level of ties in political, economic and other fields.The presidents emphasized successful implementation of strategically-important projects in the field of energy between the two countries. They particularly noted the completion of TANAP project next year.
The two leaders talked about the expansion and strengthening of the cooperation in the military field, and discussed the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan NagornoKarabakh conflict.
President Erdogan said Turkey as always supports the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan NagornoKarabakh conflict based on norms of international law and the principle of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
As part of the visit, President Aliyev also met with U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, where the sides appraised the successful development of Azerbaijan-U.S. bilateral relations in a variety of fields, including the political and energy spheres.
They discussed the political and economic reforms being implemented in Azerbaijan, as well as the democratic development.
The two also discussed the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. President Aliyev reaffirmed Azerbaijan's stance on the settlement of the conflict, and informed Tillerson about Armenia's recent military provocation on the line of contact.
The head of state highlighted the works done under the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project.
In turn, Tillerson noted that his country will continue supporting the realization of the project.
The U.S. Secretary of State hailed Azerbaijan's contribution to the peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan, as well as the country's role as a logistics and transport corridor in these operations.
Prior to the start of the Congress, President Aliyev, President Erdogan, President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic, Prime Minister of Turkey Binali Yildirim, Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borisov, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey Berat Albayrak, and President of the World Petroleum Council Joseph Tot had a brief talk.