Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The 24th International "Caspian Oil and Gas 2017" exhibition and conference, the largest oil and gas event of the Caspian region, is underway in Baku.

The exhibition has brought together about 300 companies from 30 countries, while Italy, one of the top trade partners of Azerbaijan, is participating in the exhibition with its national pavilion.

The Pavilion, organized by Italian Trade Agency in Baku and supported by the Economic Development Ministry of Italy, is among the biggest at the exhibition featuring 15 exhibitors.

B.A.G.G.I SRL, Bulk SRL, Cometto Industrie SPA, Drillereye, Drilmec, Geros SRL, Parmaprogetti SRL, Pneumoidraulica ENG SRL, SA Fire Protection SRL, Sir Meccanica SPA, Skem@ SRL, Tappi Stampati SRL, Valvitalia SPA, Valvotubi IND SRL and Vimex SRL are the Italian participants representing various fields of the oil and gas sector.

Director of the Italian Trade Agency in Baku Aniello Musella, in an exclusive interview with Azernews, spoke about their expectations from the Caspian Oil&Gas exhibition and shared his views about the cooperation between Azerbaijan and Italy.

There is a strong relationship between Azerbaijan and Italy, stressed Musella.

“Italy is the biggest importer of oil products. Azerbaijan has a positive trade balance with Italy and this market is very important for Italian companies. We have very well established companies here in Azerbaijan,” he said, adding that there is still a lot to do and this is great opportunity for Italian companies.

Speaking of the Italian exhibitors, Musella stressed that the companies represent two different categories - medium and small.

“There are 15 companies here. They have very specific technology advantages in their own segment of activity. Some of them are already suppliers of big companies that were awarded the projects. That is, some of them are subcontractors. These kinds of companies expect to find out opportunities from the big projects. That’s why our pavilion organizes meeting with representative of SOCAR and BP in order they can present the projects going on. So each company presents its own technologies that can help business to be further developed,” he said.

As for the major Italian companies, Musella explained that these companies deal directly with SOCAR and BP and other major companies, so they go ahead in a way by themselves.

Speaking of the expectation of the trade growth between the two countries, Musella said that Italy expects a lot from the diversification of the Azerbaijani economy.

“We know that the economy is focused 95 percent on oil and gas sector, so we expect a lot from the economic diversification, from other sectors like agro industry, infrastructure, lifestyle and fashion sector, because these areas are advantage for Italy,” he said.

The newly-appointed director also could not hide his surprise on what he saw in Baku.

“I was amazed when I first came to Baku to see so many mono brand shops of Italian fashion companies like Dolce Gabbana, Armani and etc. But still there is a lot to do. We expect a lot from diversification of the local economy. We expect that this diversification will take place soon, so new opportunities rather than oil and gas sector will be developed,” he noted.

Luca Princivalle, Export Manager of Geros SRL engaged in the production of electrical materials, talking to Azernews said that the company’s goal is to find importer/distributor of the company’s products here in Azerbaijan.

Valeriano Barrila, a representative of SA Fire Protection SRL, the company with almost 40 years of experience in manufacturing of fire protection systems, said that the company expects to identify local partner in order to approach the market.

Marco Astrologo, Export Sales Manager of Parmaprogetti SRL , the company producing induction heating equipment for the oils and gas industry, said that he is in Baku both as an exhibitor and visitor because the exhibition gives the chance to get in touch with the procurement department of many of the contractors EPS companies constructing here.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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