Energy in Azerbaijan

[Vrej1915]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Market Report, "Azerbaijan Oil & Gas Report Q3 2013", published

https://www.prbuzz.com/business-entrepreneur/118600-market-report-qazerbaijan-oil-a-gas-report-q3-2013q-published.html

(PRBuzz.com) May 20, 2013 -- Azerbaijan's oil industry remains hampered by problematic output at the ACG fields, which accounts for the majority of production. Although there is some upside from planned and potential new projects, we continue to forecast a peak in output in 2020, following which a slow downward trend for oil production will take hold. However, we maintain our bullish view on gas production volumes, which we predict will rise to 17.6bcm in 2013 and continue to rise throughout our 10-year forecast period, reaching 33bcm in 2022. However, reports of weaker than expected interest in gas from Azerbaijan could delay development of the future offshore fields that while posing upside to our outlook, are unlikely to materialise within our current 10-year forecast period.

The key developments in Azerbaijan's oil & gas sector are:

* Although stabilised, on the back of problematic output at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) fields, we maintain our bearish near-term view for Azeri oil production.
* Our data indicate that ACG accounts for nearly 80% of the country's total production, and after peaking at 823,000b/d in 2010, output has struggled. We forecast oil production in 2013 will reach 842,00b/d, down from an estimated 870,000b/d in 2012. First oil from the Chirag Oil Project (COP), part of the ACG complex, should help to offset problems at other fields in the BP-led development as production ramps up from 2014 onwards.
* However by 2020, we expected falling production elsewhere to fail to offset the inclusion of new volumes from the COP, leading output to enter a downward trend over the remainder of our forecast period to 2022. .
* Continued progress on developments at Shad Deniz II (SDII), the country's leading gas project that should see 10bn cubic metres (bcm) to Europe from 2019 and 6bcm to remains on track despite cost overruns and slight pushbacks in timelines.
* The Shah Denis Consortium (SDC) has narrowed its pipeline options to Nabucco West and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), with the backers of each of the pipelines making steady progress in securing necessary commitments from the government and SDC
* Rising costs could impact events at the SDII to the downside, with the development now expected to cost an additional US$5bn, according to a statement made by SOCAR officials, and further delays may come from a decision to delay FID on the SDII project from mid-2013 to end-2013.
* Interest in the Southern Corridor may also be waning - BP officials warned there was a 25% reduction in long-term European demand from Azerbaijan. This could slow plans to develop recent offshore discoveries such as Absheron and the potentially 300bcm Zafar-Mashal structure for which Statoil recently signed a MoU. Further, it may reduce interest in an expansion of the Southern Corridor beyond Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan or Iraq.
* We maintain a bullish outlook for gas production in Azerbaijan, with continued discoveries holding the potential of an upward revision as the country moves forward with outlining plans to develop gas finds. SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev told a December 2012 conference in Istanbul that the country would work to double gas production by 2025 by tapping discovered fields at Absheron, Umid, and Babak (or Babek), as well as recovering deep gas deposits from the ACG fields.

Full Report Details at
- http://www.fastmr.com/prod/596785_az....aspx?afid=101

Azerbaijan's dependence on energy prices leads to high volatility in the country's export revenues. However, continued demand from emerging markets and persistent efforts from Europe to secure access to gas from the Caspian Sea suggests a robust outlook for Azeri resources. Although the oil market has moved away from the cycle of tight supply we saw in 2011 and the first half of 2012, there is volatility in demand on the back of uncertain global macroeconomic performance and a more comfortable supply picture. With supply now comfortably meeting demand, we believe OPEC basket oil prices will hold steady, at US$104.40 per barrel (bbl) in 2013 - a slight decrease from US$109.45 in 2012.

Partial Table of Contents:

BMI Industry View
SWOT
Industry Forecast
- Table: Azerbaijan Proven Oil And Gas Reserves And Total Petroleum Data, 2011-2016f
- Table: Azerbaijan Proven Oil & Gas Reserves And Total Petroleum Data, 2017f-2022f
- Table: Azerbaijan Oil Production, Consumption and Net Exports
- Table: Azerbaijan Gas Production, Consumption And Net Exports, 2011-2016f
- Shah Deniz & The Southern Corridor
- Refining And Oil Products Trade
- Table: Azerbaijan Refining - Production And Consumption, 2011-2016f
Industry Risk Reward Ratings
- CEE - Risk/Reward Ratings
- Table: Central And Eastern Europe Risk/Reward Ratings
- Caspian Retains Lead In Upstream Ratings
- Table: Upstream Risk/Reward Rating
- Russian Trouble Persists
- Regional Minnows Breaking In
- Downstream Stabilisation
- Table: CEE Downstream Risk/Reward Ratings
- Azerbaijan - Risk/Reward Ratings
Market Overview
- Azerbaijan Energy Market Overview
- Table: Upstream Projects Database
- Oil & Gas Infrastructure
- Table: Table: Azerbaijan Downstream
- Table: Table: Rival Gas Pipeline Projects
Competitive Landscape
- Table: Key Domestic And Foreign Companies
- Table: Key Upstream Players
- Table: Key Downstream Players
Company Profile
- Socar
- BP Azerbaijan
- Statoil
- Lukoil Azerbaijan
- Azpetrol
- Other Summaries
Regional Overview
- Regional Energy Overview
- A Dependent Relationship
- Looking For A Break Up
- Central Asia: Beneficiaries Of Europe's Russian Fatigue
- Moving From Pipeline To LNG
- Russia Strikes Back
- Eastern Europe: Black Sea Gold Rush
- Shale Gas Showdown
Global Industry Overview
- Global Energy Market Overview
- Table: BMI's Oil Price Forecasts & Bloomberg Analyst Consensus, Average Price (US$/bbl)
- Table: Global Oil Demand Forecasts
- Global Oil Product Price Outlook
- Methodology
- Crude Price Forecasts
- Table: BMI's Oil Price Forecasts, Average Price (US$/bbl)
- Early Rally Turns Into Run-Off
- Table: BMI's Refined Products Forecasts, US$/bbl
- Supply: Refining Capacity Expansion Sets Tone
- Naphtha: Global Economic Outlook Weighs On Prices
- Gasoline And Gasoil/Diesel: The Green Effect

Full Table of Contents is available at:
-- http://www.fastmr.com/catalog/produc...&dt=t&afid=101

About Fast Market Research

Fast Market Research is an online aggregator and distributor of market research and business information. We represent the world's top research publishers and analysts and provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available.

For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at http://www.fastmr.com or call us at 1.800.844.8156.

[Mher]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

New Report Highlights Lack Of Transparency In Azerbaijan's Oil Industry

By Charles Recknagel

December 10, 2013
A new report on Azerbaijan's oil industry documents how millions of dollars of revenue disappear into the hands of obscurely owned private companies with the apparent cooperation of the government-controlled state oil company.

The report by the NGO Global Witness, presented in London on December 10, found a pattern in Azerbaijan's oil industry of partnering with shadowy companies that make hundreds of millions of dollars handling oil but whose business role remains unclear:

"Little-known private individuals, private companies, have been inserted into the oil industry of Azerbaijan, and nobody knows who these people are or why they have been included," says Tom Mayne, a lead researcher in the yearlong investigation.

The report details in particular the case of one individual who offers a clear example of the pattern. He is Anar Aliyev, a 35-year-old Azerbaijani entrepreneur who has created multiple offshore companies that either hold contracts with or engage in joint ventures with Socar, Azerbaijan's state oil company.

The companies themselves perform few services that Socar cannot do itself and Aliyev (who shares a common surname with, but is no known relation to, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev) had no track record in the oil business before creating them.

Global Witness found that between 2007 and 2012, companies linked to Aliyev were involved in at least 48 joint ventures, production-sharing contracts, or other agreements with Socar and published profits of $375 million.

Huge Profits

In one example, an Aliyev-owned offshore known as Heritage General Trading acquired shares in Socar's own oil-trading subsidiary, Socar Trading. This enabled the offshore to receive 25 percent of Socar Trading's revenues.

Global Witness notes that the share deal was struck in 2007 "at a time when the state oil company was already enjoying increased revenues from rapidly increasing oil production and there should have had no need of outside investment on the relatively minor scale" that was offered. To buy the 25 percent stake, Aliyev's Heritage General Trading paid just $5 million.

Then, five years later, Aliyev's company sold its shares back to Socar for $118 million, more than 20 times what it originally paid.

RFE/RL Azerbaijani Service correspondent Khadija Ismayilova, who also has investigated the Aliyev deals, says such deals raise widespread public concern in Azerbaijan that the state oil sector -- which is directly controlled by loyalists of the ruling party -- is being deliberately drained of part of its revenues for the benefit of powerful, but unidentified, parties.

One of the reasons for such public concern, Ismayilova says, is how little is known about Anar Aliyev himself. Whereas other successful oil businessmen have highly public records, Aliyev keeps such a low profile that many in Azerbaijan assume his role is to merely hide the identity of the true beneficiaries of his companies.

"What do we know about Anar Aliyev? Actually, the honest answer would be nothing," Ismayilova says. "He had no [previous] relation to the business he took over starting in 2007 and he became a partner in huge projects, and he could be a perfect proxy for someone more significant than he is, but that question is still open."

Clear As Sludge

The Global Witness report does not establish whether Aliyev, or some other party, is the true beneficiary of the millions of dollars the companies have made by inserting themselves as obscure middlemen into Azerbaijan's state oil business.

But the report says such cases sound the alarm that current international efforts to promote transparency in state oil businesses like Azerbaijan's need to be tightened.

Azerbaijan has long been considered a poster child for the world's highest-profile campaign to persuade resource-rich states to provide their citizens with access to information about how much their governments earn from the sale of their oil, gas, minerals, or other natural wealth.

That campaign, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), was established in 2003 and comprises 40 countries participating on a voluntary basis. Azerbaijan was the first country to be assessed as EITI-compliant in 2009 and Baku often cites this rating as evidence that it is willing to let civil society hold it accountable if discrepancies are found its oil-revenue figures.

However, the Global Witness report notes, the structure of the state-oil structure itself remains opaque. "So far, despite the EITI, the Azerbaijani people are still in the dark about the decision-making process for significant extractive deals and cannot see where substantial amounts earned from the country's resources are going," the report concludes.

http://www.rferl.org/content/azerbaijan-oil-corruption-transparency/25196298.html

[Mher]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan Buys Greek Gas Distributor Stake

December 22, 2013
Greece's privatization agency says Azerbaijan's state gas operator SOCAR has finalized an agreement to buy 66 percent of Greek gas distributor DESFA.

The sale is part of Greece's state asset sale program originating from its EU-IMF bailout obligations.

The contract was signed in the presence of Greek Energy Minister Yannis Maniatis and SOCAR president Rovnag Abdullayev.

The agency said SOCAR will pay 400 million euros ($546 million) for DESFA, the company that handles Greece's gas transmission system.

http://www.rferl.org/content/azerbaijan-gas-desfa/25208569.html

[Artashes]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan Buys Greek Gas Distributor Stake

December 22, 2013
Greece's privatization agency says Azerbaijan's state gas operator SOCAR has finalized an agreement to buy 66 percent of Greek gas distributor DESFA.

The sale is part of Greece's state asset sale program originating from its EU-IMF bailout obligations.

The contract was signed in the presence of Greek Energy Minister Yannis Maniatis and SOCAR president Rovnag Abdullayev.

The agency said SOCAR will pay 400 million euros ($546 million) for DESFA, the company that handles Greece's gas transmission system.

http://www.rferl.org/content/azerbai.../25208569.html

---------- western fraud prevails in Greece ---------------
If you lived in the USA, you would see a major push to "privatize" any and all public assets.
You can read that as.... The ultra rich should own all assets, BECAUSE they know how to run them more ?efficientl?!?!?!?!
In fact they manipulate the beaurocracys to be so clumsy & and inefficient & ineffective because they hate having any real help to the general well being but really are representing the LARGE moneyed interests.
In the USA here is how it works (or one way) --- they (large corporation(s)) take control and fire two of three people doing actual work & then say ... See we've saved the taxpayer money! The 3 people doing the initial job were already overworked & hamstrung by a myriad of nonsensical beaurocratic rules, to insure the outcome of any govt program to help ordinary citizens would fail.
-----------------
Now look at Mher's above post & here is what you see .....
...... EU knew Greece would screw up, giving them great leverage. So Greece (not the brightest govt on planet) in order to meet EU obligations sells its national !!NATIONAL!! Asset to who??? An acknowledged , known thief (baboonieve).
Good move Greece. --- headline reads ... Greece gives Einstein run for top accolades ...
EU says ... We want baboonieve's gas, WE WON!!!
In times past, the Athenians were known for bum ducking. Hows the EU duck feel Greece? Did they pass on knowledge to you?????
Simply put, the ultra rich manipulator wants to own ALL assets. Cannot stand the ordinary person having anything. After all, only the rich are are deserving.
Live & in broad daylight & living color, another successful manipulation.
Artashes

[Mher]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Financial Times: Azerbaijan will supply Europe only with 2% of the total gas usage

“For a decade, the EU has nurtured an almost absurdly ambitious plan – to pump natural gas from the Caspian Sea thousands of miles into the heart of Europe, and so reduce its heavy reliance on gas from Russia. When that plan finally got the go-ahead in December, it felt like a bit of a damp squib,” the British newspaper Financial Times writes.

The article notes that according to the agreement signed in Baku about $45 billion will be invested in the project Shah Deniz II.

“Yet the amount of gas that will actually be piped into the EU is small – 10bn cubic metres per annum, which represents just 2 per cent of the 500 bcm Europe consumes every year. Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled gas exporter sells 15 times that amount to Europe. No wonder its managers privately joke that the Azeri gas will be “just about enough for a barbecue,”” the British newspaper reports.

As it is noted in the article, the project also has some supporters, particularly Riccardo Puliti, head of energy and natural resources at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The author notes that in spite of “the pomp that accompanied the signing of the Shah Deniz II agreement, uncertainties remain.” In particular, some experts wonder whether Europe needs Azerbaijani gas, given the sharp drop in demand of natural gas on the continent.

Note, that on 17th of December in 2013 in Baku some agreements were signed for the development of Shah Deniz field. Total cost of Shah Deniz II equals to $45 billion (including the construction projects of TANAP and TAP pipelines). The participants of Shah Deniz project are BP, Statoil, SOCAR, Lukoil, NICO, Total and TPAO.

Note, as well that the Deputy Finance Minister of Azerbaijan Azer Bayramov recently stated that Azerbaijan should say goodbye to the prospects of large gas profits and that in the next 4 years under the framework of Shah Deniz project Azerbaijan cannot hope for anything. “After 4 years we won’t get a single penny from the sale of gas,” Azerbaijani official said linking it with large-scale investments that the participants of the Consortium should give at the beginning of the second phase of the development of Shah Deniz field.

http://www.panorama.am/en/economy/2014/01/07/financial-times/

[Mher]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan Chooses TAP over Nabucco to Provide Gas Pipeline to Europe

By Caitlin Del Sole, European Affairs Editorial Assistant

After years of fierce competition among Europe’s energy giants, the developers of a major Azerbaijani natural gas field in the Caspian Sea recently picked the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project over the Nabucco West project to transport Caspian natural gas to Europe. According to the Financial Times, the estimated cost of the project is around $5 billion. The decision has major implications for European energy requirements and will help ease dependence on Russian gas.

The pipeline will transport natural gas from the SECOND Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea, which is set to begin production in 2018. (The first Shah Deniz field is currently operational and has exported 40 billion cubic-meters (bcm) in its first five years in operation to Turkey through Georgia via the South Caucasus Pipeline.) The Shah Deniz consortium responsible for the decision is a joint project owned by Britain’s BP (25.5 percent), Norway’s Statoil (25.5 percent), Azerbaijan’s national oil company Socar (10 percent), Russia’s Lukoil (10 percent), Iran’s NIOC (10 percent), Turkey’s TPAO (9 percent), and Total of France (10 percent).

The TAP consortium, which has won the lucrative contract to build the pipeline, is Statoil (42.5 percent), Switzerland’s Axpo (42.5 percent), and Germany’s large utility company E.On (15 percent). Belgian Fluxys is also expected to join TAP this month. With construction set to begin in 2015 and be completed by 2019, the 800km long pipeline will run from the Turkish border through Greece and Albania, and then cross the Adriatic sea to Santa Foca, Italy, and is expected to supply 10 to 20 bcm annually or 2% of Europe’s natural gas needs. This is more than double Greece’s annual consumption.

sd-pipeline-map-770x325

The Italian terminus will allow Caspian gas to link to existing and planned pipelines, bringing the gas north to the rest of the European continent. Gas will then be distributed through existing and planned pipelines to Switzerland, Belgium, and Germany and, through the Netherlands or Belgium, to Great Britain.

TAP was chosen, say analysts, because it is 450 km shorter and therefore cheaper than Nabucco. Additionally, gas prices in Italy and Greece are higher than in the eastern European markets that would have been reached initially by Nabucco.

The competing Nabucco West proposal was led by Austria’s OMV (34.76 percent), with support from Hungary’s FGSZ (13.11 percent), Bulgaria’s BEH, Turkey’s Botas, and Romania’s Transgaz, each with 17.38 percent ownership. It would have transported Caspian gas from Turkey to Austria, passing through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

The Nabucco project was originally proposed in 2002, as a 3,900 km pipeline that would carry 31 bcm of gas annually from Georgia to Austria. It was seen as a critical project for European energy security, and was supported by the European Commission. In 2009, the European Investment Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said they were prepared to finance up to 25 percent of the cost of Nabucco, around 200 million euros, if it secured an international agreement to proceed. When TAP was proposed, however, the EU determined they would not take an official position of supporting one pipeline over the other.

The situation became more complex in 2012, when Turkey and Azerbaijan decided to build a pipeline between the Shah Deniz II field and Kipoi, Turkey near the land border with Greece. After the Trans-Anatolia Pipeline (Tanap) decision, Nabucco was scaled back to the current Nabucco West project, beginning at the Turkish border instead of in Georgia.

TAP will connect to the Tanap. The combined cost of developing Shah Deniz II and Tanap is estimated at $40 billion.

After the 2009 gas crisis when Russia suspended energy delivery to the Ukraine over price disagreements, and effectively halted gas supplies through Ukraine to the EU for nearly two weeks, the push to diversify European energy supplies assumed real urgency. It was hoped that the Nabucco project could have provided an alternative source of gas to those eastern European countries in the EU that are particularly dependent on Russia.

Russia currently provides approximately 150 of Europe’s 500 bcm annual gas consumption. The Financial Times reports that Russian energy giant Gazprom’s managers have written the Azeri gas off as “just about enough for a barbecue.”

During the hard fought competition, the Nabucco West group criticized TAP for not contributing to Europe’s energy diversity, as Italy already enjoys diverse sources of energy. On the other hand analysts pointed out that TAP will help Europe increase its overall energy security, even in many Balkan countries due to the construction of the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) that would link to TAP in Albania. Croatia’s Plinacro, Bosnia’s BH-Gas, and the Government of Montenegro are promoting the IAP, which would result in a 516 km pipeline to deliver 5 bcm annually of gas to those countries

But other other EU countries, such as Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, will be negatively impacted by the decision not to proceed with Nabucco West. Since they will be bypassed by TAP, they remain heavily dependent on Russian gas and cannot profit from the transit fees they would have received with Nabucco West.

The TAP decision makes Azerbaijan a key player in Europe, and particularly influential in Greece. Not only is a large stretch of TAP located in Greece, but just weeks before the decision to go with TAP, Shah Deniz consortium member Socar (the Azerbaijan State Oil Company), bought a controlling stake in Greece’s gas network operator, Desfa. The TAP choice provides the opportunity for a direct supply relationship between Azerbaijan and Greece.

Greece stands to benefit significantly from TAP. The financial crisis has intensified the need to generate foreign investment to boost the still weak Greek economy. TAP would invest 1.5 billion euros in Greece alone, and create 2,000 direct jobs, as well as 10,000 more in companies that support the project, according to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. Greek Deputy Energy Minister Assimakis Papageorgiou estimates a tax revenue of 320 million euros from the pipeline in the first 15 years.

It is possible that the Shah Dinez gas is just the tip of the iceberg. Once the pipelines are underway, other countries, such as Iraq, Turkmenistan, Israel, and others, will be able to export to Europe via Tanap and TAP

Upon learning of the TAP decision, EU Energy Commissioner Gunter Oettinger said, “We have a definite commitment from Azerbaijan that gas will be directly delivered to Europe… Whether the system consists of two gas pipelines – Tanap and TAP – or one single pipeline…does not make any difference in terms of energy security. We now have a new partner for gas, and I am confident that we will receive more gas in the future.”

http://www.europeaninstitute.org/August-2013/azerbaijan-chooses-tap-over-nabucco-to-provide-gas-pipeline-to-europe-88.html

[Mher]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

---------- western fraud prevails in Greece ---------------
If you lived in the USA, you would see a major push to "privatize" any and all public assets.
You can read that as.... The ultra rich should own all assets, BECAUSE they know how to run them more ?efficientl?!?!?!?!
In fact they manipulate the beaurocracys to be so clumsy & and inefficient & ineffective because they hate having any real help to the general well being but really are representing the LARGE moneyed interests.
In the USA here is how it works (or one way) --- they (large corporation(s)) take control and fire two of three people doing actual work & then say ... See we've saved the taxpayer money! The 3 people doing the initial job were already overworked & hamstrung by a myriad of nonsensical beaurocratic rules, to insure the outcome of any govt program to help ordinary citizens would fail.
-----------------
Now look at Mher's above post & here is what you see .....
...... EU knew Greece would screw up, giving them great leverage. So Greece (not the brightest govt on planet) in order to meet EU obligations sells its national !!NATIONAL!! Asset to who??? An acknowledged , known thief (baboonieve).
Good move Greece. --- headline reads ... Greece gives Einstein run for top accolades ...
EU says ... We want baboonieve's gas, WE WON!!!
In times past, the Athenians were known for bum ducking. Hows the EU duck feel Greece? Did they pass on knowledge to you?????
Simply put, the ultra rich manipulator wants to own ALL assets. Cannot stand the ordinary person having anything. After all, only the rich are are deserving.
Live & in broad daylight & living color, another successful manipulation.
Artashes

Ya most definitely, the belief that the free market can do anything better is true only to a limited scope. It's not applicable when best way to do things for the entire society requires taking losses, or helping the unprofitable.

As far as greece, it's a shame, but you're right, they didn't have too much of a choice in the matter, seeing how their country is for sale.

[Artashes]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

Ya most definitely, the belief that the free market can do anything better is true only to a limited scope. It's not applicable when best way to do things for the entire society requires taking losses, or helping the unprofitable.

As far as greece, it's a shame, but you're right, they didn't have too much of a choice in the matter, seeing how their country is for sale.

---- when the BEST way to do things for the entire society requires taking losses, or helping the unprofitable---
Read those words with great pleasure.
Not something your likely to hear from an American.
Apparently your not one of George bushes children.
Having read the short story " How Much Land Does A man Need" by I think Leo Tolstoy & contemplated such, I've come to these conclusions ---
--- if one invests x$ and does not get x+$ back but accomplishes well for the society, then that well that was accomplished for the better good can be considered as a profit.
In the western financial finagle act it would be considered a loss but I've concluded they are wrong.
Again, if I give someone x$ and that person is able to sustain themselves regularly from that point on & are able to give me 20% of x as a one time return. Then I think it only cost me 80% of x to get 100% of x into that persons hand. I count that as a good deal, and a smart move. But in the USA it would be considered a loss.
I think the pursuit of money for money's sake has much fault & is in large part why the rich get richer & ...
Nice to read your above words.
Artashes

[londontsi]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

As far as greece, it's a shame, but you're right, they didn't have too much of a choice in the matter, seeing how their country is for sale.

The closer one looks at the predicament Greece and Cyprus find themselves in, one cannot but conclude
the cause was complacency with regards the management of the country’s finances over a number of years.

This was compounded by corruption and petty theft from the country’s budget including systemic taxes evasion.

Its not a shame but a price the nation and the country has to pay for the greed and stupidity of the few.
Non application and immunity from the laws through bribes does not help.

One does not have to look far to see what fate awaits us if we do not change our ways and glean lessons from it.

.

[Mher]

Re: Energy in Azerbaijan

The closer one looks at the predicament Greece and Cyprus find themselves in, one cannot but conclude
the cause was complacency with regards the management of the country’s finances over a number of years.

This was compounded by corruption and petty theft from the country’s budget including systemic taxes evasion.

Its not a shame but a price the nation and the country has to pay for the greed and stupidity of the few.
Non application and immunity from the laws through bribes does not help.

One does not have to look far to see what fate awaits us if we do not change our ways and glean lessons from it.

.

Though we have plenty of problems to fix, let's face it, Greece was dealt a lot better hands than us. Membership in NATO, direct access to most of the biggest markets in the world, tourism money flowing in, and no imminent threat of war.