After Malta, SOCAR eyes new deals for LNG projects

Malta project a ‘model for the future’, says SOCAR Trading director-general

SOCAR Trading SA, the marketing arm of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, is aiming to ride on the success of the new natural gas-fired Delimara power station to sell the technology to developing nations, the company’s director-general said in an interview published in the influential energy trade publication Platts.

In the interview, SOCAR Trading SA director-general Arzu Azimov said the company now sees itself as a pioneer in the field of LNG-to-power solutions, and that the project in Malta could be a “model for the future”, especially in developing economies in Africa and Asia.

SOCAR Trading, in addition to being a shareholder, is also the supplier of the plant’s liquefied natural gas, and will remain so for the next 18 years. But this latter bit of information – which has been met with no small amount of controversy in Malta – was not mentioned in the interview.

“We are prepared to look at any location – we do all the necessary due diligence and look for partners wanting to build or modernise a power plant,” Mr Azimov was quoted as saying.

“The Malta project was very complex with a lot of technological innovation, and we learned a lot in the process.”

He added: “Some are willing to agree to a fully integrated project, with power station and LNG offtake contract and guaranteed supply [as in the case of the contentious Malta deal]. In some areas there are existing power plants, but not enough gas. We can source LNG for them. We are competitive and we are flexible.

“We are not hostage to our own production – we can always take the cheapest LNG available on the market at any given time,” he added.

Mr Azimov noted that in Cote d’Ivoire, SOCAR Trading is part of a consortium that won a tender to operate an LNG-to-power project. “Other projects are currently at different stages of development” he said, “either with a Memorandum of Understanding being prepared, due diligence being carried out or bilateral talks ongoing.”