Azernews.Az

By Gulgiz Dadashova

The energy factor should never be used for other purposes as blackmail, and shouldn't be used to get privileges in other spheres, said President Ilham Aliyev.

The Azerbaijani leader, addressing the 23rd International Caspian Oil & Gas Exhibition and Conference in Baku on June 2, stated that the energy policy and cooperation in this sphere, the long-term cooperation should be built only on a healthy basis, pointing to this as a key to Azerbaijan’s successful energy policy.

President Aliyev said Azerbaijan's stance on this issue has won s sympathy on a global scale, adding that on the other hand, this stance demonstrates its rightfulness and this shows that only this attitude can bring success.

Two decades ago, Azerbaijan was a newborn country in the state of war, with a collapsed economy and political chaos. Today, it is not only among the world’s fastest growing nations, but also a vibrant democracy and a reliable energy supplier.

This huge transformation in less than a generation was achieved thanks to the huge energy projects and wise policy of the authorities. Azerbaijan, with sustained strong growth and impressive poverty reduction, is among the widely cited development success stories. Today, the country initiates and realizes large-scale energy, transport and other projects ensuring deeper regional integration and growth.

The president stated that Azerbaijan gained a reputation of a trustful partner hailing the fact that local and foreign investors hugely invest in country and believe in it.

addressing the top energy managers and businessmen, President Aliyev also reminded that implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor, dubbed as the Project of the 21^st Century, will allow Azerbaijan to bring both gas from the Shah Deniz field and the Azerbaijani gas to be produced on other fields, to the world market.

This will allow the country to fully implement oil and gas plans, he stressed.

The president went on to say that through directing the oil revenues to transport infrastructure, Azerbaijan got very important transportation hubs, and the East-West Transport Corridor project is currently being implemented.

He expressed confidence that this corridor will be fully commissioned before late 2016, and thus, oil, gas and transport corridors will pass through Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan's geographical location, investments made and thought-out policy, joint activity with partners created this reality, which serves both the Azerbaijani state, its people and ensures interests of neighboring countries, and, on a broader scale, strengthens international cooperation, said the president.

Transit countries and producing countries also show great interest, said the president, adding that they surely benefit from these projects. Decades later, the transit countries will get big profits, President Aliyev stressed.

He noted that the consumer countries will have access to additional, alternative sources of gas, which means that all parties only win in this case. The president said that first of all, Azerbaijan had to put up its efforts and did so to form this international cooperation.

Mentioning that Azerbaijan has enough gas resources, the president announced that the proven gas reserves in the country amount to 2.6 trillion cubic meters.

Preparatory work is underway in connection with the development of the Absheron and Umid fields. "I am confident that these projects will be successful as well, and thus, gas production of Azerbaijan will increase even more," he said, adding that deep layers of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field contain large reserves of gas.

President Aliyev also announced that the country does not want to limit its activities with the existing format of the Southern Gas Corridor project.

"We want to widen our activities," the country's president noted, adding that in order to achieve this, there are gas resources and a format of international cooperation has been established.

Over the past decade, Azerbaijan could considerably expand its energy industry enabling the country to be a secure energy supplier to the world. However, the country still enjoys every opportunity to discover additional reserves of gas condensate from its own fields in the Caspian Sea.

While the vast majority of these reserves are associated with the Shah Deniz field, Azerbaijan possesses additional significant gas fields such as Absheron, Umid, Babek and Nakhchivan, of which Absheron field is projected to be commenced in 2021. The cited indicators ensure future development of the gas industry in Azerbaijan for a period exceeding 100 years.

Azerbaijan's natural gas production had grown four times to reach 29 billion cubic metres in the past 10 years. Azerbaijan is able to increase its natural gas production to 40 billion cubic metres per year.

The president noted that the overview of the chronology of the work done shows that in order to achieve its goals, Azerbaijan is moving with a high consistency, in a purposeful and planned manner.

"The success achieved to date, doesn't drop from the sky. It became possible as a result of hard and purposeful work and I reiterate that we managed to achieve this success only within international cooperation," said President Aliyev.

The president said the situation is that the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project is on schedule and currently, it is the main task in the energy sphere.

The Southern Gas Corridor is an economic project, said the president, adding that meanwhile, it is a project of security.

President Aliyev emphasized that currently, the energy security is coming to the fore in the world and everyone understands that it is impossible to talk about the national security of countries without energy security.

The countries which are not rich with energy resources are naturally dependent on other resources, said the president.

Ilham Aliyev went on to add that Azerbaijan always had a goal to use the energy factor for intensifying the cooperation and has never used its potential for other purposes.

"We have had a desire to intensify the cooperation and ensure stability in our neighborhood, so that this stability would make it possible for us to implement the transnational projects, improve the welfare of Azerbaijani people and increase the power of our country," added the president.

Noting that the example of Azerbaijan can be interesting for many countries, President Aliyev said over 25 years, Azerbaijan has proved that it can exist as an independent country, can be a master of its destiny and build normal relations with all countries.

"Most importantly, we have very clear and precise views of the future," he added.

"We have lived under the conditions of highest economic growth over the last ten years. Azerbaijan's economy has grown more than threefold. Naturally, our economy, our people have accustomed to this. Now a new period begins."

"We can and are getting out of any situation with our head held high. Our main task is to ensure that the Azerbaijani people wouldn't suffer from the ongoing crisis in the world," said President Aliyev.

The country’s reliability and important role as energy supplier was also highly appraised by U.S. leader Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who sent letters to the event participants.

“Azerbaijan continues to play a critical role in the global supply of energy and is a reliable partner in our shared goal of increasing regional supply diversification, market competition, and energy security.” President Obama said in his letter.

Cameron in turn highlighted that the Southern Gas Corridor will play an important role in diversifying the EU’s gas market and so strengthening European energy security, and congratulates the Government of Azerbaijan on its role in the development of the Southern Gas Corridor.