Energy in Azerbaijan

[Mher]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan: Falling Economy, Rising Karabakh War Risk
May 14, 2015 - 11:36am, by Youri Smakouz Armenia Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh EurasiaNet's Weekly Digest
EurasiaNet Commentary

One of the first casualties is likely to be the Khazar Islands project, a $100 billion initiative to build 41 artificial islands in the Caspian Sea. Although the project is primarily being financed privately, it is far from completion and it will now be much harder for the developer to attract new financing.

Another project likely to suffer is Baku White City, an office and residential complex. Experts believe that government funding for this and similar projects will like dry up after the inaugural European Games, an Olympics-style extraveganza to be held in Baku in June.

this is going to be entertaining. Who amongst us would have guessed that project was unrealistic. I can picture it now

[Gevz]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

All we Armenians need to do is be patient.

Should the price of Oil stay at these levels for 1 more year I think Baboons will be bankrupt.

[Artashes]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

I'm not sure if I'm reading the statistics correctly , but the Georgian money & monkey money have depreciated significantly in this last year to the dollar & euro . However, if I'm reading the stats right , the dram hasn't changed by 25 cents .
Dispite the huge reduction in remittance from Russia and other NEGITIVE factors , Hayastan's economy has actually grown .
Is this correct ?
Seems like there are factors (positive) that aren't being spoken of when the Hay economy is concerned.

[Gevz]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Ilham Aliyev: In spite of oil price decline, Azerbaijan’s economy grew 5%

http://www.news.az/articles/official/98458

This monkey is only lying to himself. 5% growth yeah...... in your dreams you fkn idiot.

fake economy
fake country

economy is 80% dependent on oil.

[Mher]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Iran Oil Minister: Low oil prices make investments in oil-rich countries unfavorable

Low oil prices make the investments in oil-rich countries unfavorable, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh told Iranian journalists in follow-up of the Ministerial meeting of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna.

"We are not satisfied with the current oil price. OPEC members must cooperate to adjust it and agree on a fair price in order to satisfy all members,” he said, PRESSTV reports, referring to the Minister’s reaction to the decision on retaining the level of oil production on the same level.

“The existing price will make investors unable to invest in oil rich countries,” he added.

During the meeting in Vienna, Zangeneh carried out a number of talks with the largest world oil companies, including Shell, Eni, Total and Lukoil, who are interested in investments and return to the Iranian market.

According to Zangeneh, although “oil prices have recovered from their January low of $50 a barrel to trade around $62, most OPEC members agree on $75 a barrel as being a "fair" price.”

The minister also stressed Iran’s stance, which is to ramp up its oil output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) within two months and 1 million bpd within six to seven months after sanctions are voided.

Currently, Iran produces 2,8 million barrels. Decades ago its production made up 4 million barrels a day, that indicator peaking in 1974, when Iran produced 6 million barrels of oil.

http://news.am/eng/news/270509.html

[Mher]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan to produce 40.7 mln T of oil, 30.2 bcm of gas in 2015-SOCAR

(Reuters) - Azerbaijan plans to produce 40.7 million tonnes of oil and 30.2 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas in 2015, a senior official at Azeri state energy firm SOCAR said on Thursday.

This compares with 41.9 million tonnes of oil and 29.6 bcm of gas last year. The previous forecasts for this year were 40.3 million tonnes of oil and 29 bcm of gas.

Rakhman Gurbanov, vice-president of oil-gas production and transportation, said at the annual Caspian Oil and Gas 2015 conference in Baku that SOCAR should produce 8.3 million tonnes of oil in 2015, the same as in 2014, and 6.5 bcm of gas, down from 7.2 bcm last year.

He said 6.5 million tonnes of oil produced by SOCAR would be processed, while 1.7 million tonnes would be exported; 4.85 bcm of gas would be used for domestic needs and 1.2 bcm - exported.

Crude oil and condensate production in Azerbaijan rose to 14.2 million tonnes in the first four months of 2015 from 13.6 million a year earlier, driven by rising oil output at the main Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli (ACG) oilfields operated by Britain's BP.

Natural gas production fell to 9.7 bcm in January-April from 10.2 bcm a year earlier due to a decline in production by SOCAR

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/04/azerbaijan-energy-output-idUSL5N0YQ1I820150604

[Vrej1915]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

What Does Greek Crisis Mean for Azerbaijan’s Energy Interests?
July 27, 2015,
by Lamiya Adilgizi


The near collapse of Greece’s economy has raised pressing questions for energy power Azerbaijan, which had viewed the country as a potential turbo boost for its energy ambitions in the European Union. Now, as Athens cleans house financially and talks deeper energy ties with Russia, Azerbaijan, which has an agreement to purchase a majority share in Greece’s gas distribution network, needs to protect its own interests, energy analysts say.

Azerbaijan’s entry point into Greece comes via the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), an 870-kilometer-long gas pipeline which, by around 2019, will bring Greece, Albania and Italy 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas per year – part of a 3,500-kilometer-plus-long pipeline network from the Caspian Sea called the Southern Gas Corridor.

In 2013, the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) further strengthened its European targets by agreeing to pay 400 million euros (then $524.2 million) for a 66-percent stake in Greece’s state-owned gas distribution network, DESFA, its first such European acquisition. Via DESFA, which will operate the Greek section of the TAP pipeline, SOCAR also would obtain half ownership in a planned 182-kilometer-long branch to Bulgaria.

But Greece, since the beginning of 2015, has indicated that it wants to reduce SOCAR’s share of the network to 49 percent. And that it wants cheaper prices for the 1 bcm of gas it will receive annually from TAP.

SOCAR has resisted both requests, but, now, with a question mark over all of Greece’s assets, much less its ability to pay for gas, Baku may need to change its expectations.

“Greece’s huge debts stand to jeopardize the Southern Gas Corridor and Azerbaijan being a major shareholder in DESFA,” commented Mehmet Öğütçü, chairperson of the Istanbul-based Bosphorus Energy Club, a networking group of which SOCAR is a member.

For one, further delay on SOCAR’s acquisition of DESFA is likely. Under the terms of Greece’s bailout deal with the EU, a newly created fund may obtain control over Greece’s gas grid and the national gas company DEPA, but not until after October, Hellenic Shipping News reported on July 27.

One energy executive quoted by the publication, Aegean Gas Chief Executive Officer Theodore Theodoropoulos, said that, consequently, he does not think SOCAR’s purchase of DESFA “will proceed in its current form.”

At the same time, Baku’s own enthusiasm for DESFA may be growing cold.

Thanks to lower oil prices, SOCAR and Azerbaijan both have seen their revenue shrink. Furthermore, in January, the European Commission suspended deliberations about whether to approve SOCAR’s purchase of DESFA.

Reasons for the delay are not clear – some sources say the EU, others SOCAR – but energy expert Marco Giuli of Brussels’ European Policy Center, an independent think-tank, believes Russia inadvertently plays a role here.

EU legislation bars Russia’s Gazprom, the source of most of Greece’s gas imports and SOCAR’s distant rival in the campaign for European markets, from taking over DESFA. Gazprom in 2013 withdrew from a bid for DESFA’s parent company, DEPA.

“This is a matter of credibility. The EU does not want to be seen as allowing SOCAR to get what Gazprom couldn’t get,” Giuli said.

SOCAR, by contrast, holds only a 20-percent stake in TAP, a six-partner project which is exempt from EU rules requiring third-party access to pipelines.

SOCAR has not commented publicly on DESFA since the EU’s July 13 bailout deal with Greece, but on July 19, Azernews.az, an Azerbaijani-government mouthpiece, underlined that SOCAR’s takeover of the network would inject much needed cash into the Greek economy.

The original June 2013 purchase deal, however, allows SOCAR to opt out of DESFA if the sale is not concluded within two years, Greek and Azerbaijani media outlets have reported.

Yet even if the DESFA deal falls through, analysts believe that Greece and Azerbaijan will remain energy partners.

If Greece opts out of the TAP pipeline, it will incur penalties. “So, it concerns Europe, rather than Baku,” noted Ilham Shaban, director of the Baku-based Caspian Barrel, an energy research center.

Shaban, however, sees no risk for such a prospect. Greece needs to promote its own energy security. “Athens will hang on to Azerbaijan so that it chooses Greece for its resources to flow into central Europe,” he predicted.

For Greece, the construction contracts, thousands of jobs and related investment from the TAP pipeline are “godsent gifts,” agreed Öğütçü.

Greece earlier had expressed interest in also taking a share in TAP, and in receiving annual transit fees. Azerbaijan welcomed the first proposal and rejected the second.

But, at the same time, Greece, led by the left-wing Syriza Party, also is quite happy to hold on to Russia, the source of most of its gas and oil imports.

On July 12, as Greece debated the EU bailout deal, Russia, which signed an agreement in June with Athens to run its proposed 47-bcm Turkish Stream gas pipeline across Greece, pledged to consider “direct energy supplies” to Greece.

Details have not emerged, though Moscow recently reemphasized its commitment to the pipeline agreement.

Energy analyst Giuli, citing EU legislation, plays down the prospect of such a partnership, however. “One can, of course, speculate about Greece looking for Russian financial support, but, in the end, Greece cannot commit exclusively to one single source [of gas]…”

The EU, meanwhile, recently underlined its support for Azerbaijan’s energy ties to Europe. “Azerbaijan is our reliable and strategic partner in the energy field, and we want to take this partnership further,” European Council President Donald Tusk said in Baku on July 22.

Nonetheless, Azerbaijan still feels the need to downplay Turkish Stream.

Writing on July 24, Azernews.az noted that Russia will need “many years” to find the funds for the $50-$60-billion pipeline. By contrast, it boasted, Azerbaijani gas from TAP would be “finding clients long before … Russian gas arrives…”

Editor's note: Lamiya Adilgizi is a freelance Azerbaijani reporter.

[Artashes]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Ya folks, monkeys are going to pot finance and out produce Russia.
Who has more gas? Who has closer physical proximity to needed site? Who has more price range options?
The above article is another propaganda piece.
The US/euro support a longer less convenient source of energy? Lol. That makes sense. Or maybe geopoliticle nonsense.
Such stupidity by whats supposed to be our intellectual info source or guidance.

[Artashes]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Ya folks, monkeys are going to pot finance and out produce Russia.
Who has more gas? Who has closer physical proximity to needed site? Who has more price range options?
The above article is another propaganda piece.
The US/euro support a longer less convenient source of energy? Lol. That makes sense. Or maybe geopoliticle nonsense.
Such stupidity by whats supposed to be our intellectual info source or guidance.

Meant to say ... Monkeys are going to "out " finance.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Ya folks, monkeys are going to pot finance and out produce Russia.
Who has more gas? Who has closer physical proximity to needed site? Who has more price range options?
The above article is another propaganda piece.
The US/euro support a longer less convenient source of energy? Lol. That makes sense. Or maybe geopoliticle nonsense.
Such stupidity by whats supposed to be our intellectual info source or guidance.

My dear,
don't get lured by the the smoke, but look at hard facts.
1- the article is of course signed by a bakinsky pen. But it is more the evidence of their anger towards EU policy....
2- turns out, that the EU is sabotaging Bakinsky dreams, no matter official lines.
3- Real Question: If the EU (US), sabotages Russian (openly admitted), and turkish sources (undercover), for whom are they letting place??