Oriented on making people closer

The delegation of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) is taking part in the international forum "Oil and Gas of Turkmenistan", which opened in Ashgabat on Wednesday.

SOCAR President Rovshan Najaf spoke at the planning session of the forum, where the future of the regional and global energy system was discussed against the backdrop of new challenges that pose serious challenges for the industry and at the same time create opportunities for unprecedented transformation.

SOCAR's stand is also presented at the parallel exhibition, informing participants about the innovations and achievements of the oil and gas industry of Azerbaijan, the company's role in domestic and international projects. And here informal business meetings are held, exchange of views on the possibilities of cooperation of various companies with SOCAR, whose specialists answer in detail the questions of interest to their colleagues.

– We annually meet in Ashgabat with our Turkmen partners at the oil and gas forum, and every year we have more and more news for them. Especially after the signing between the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan of a memorandum on the joint development of the Dostluk Caspian field, SOCAR Vice President Elshat Nasirov said in an interview with ORIENT.

– As you know, this deposit on the border of two countries used to be called differently on both sides of it, but then we came to an agreement and a common denominator, deciding that this should not be a territory of dispute, but of friendship, calling it “Dostluk”, which means “Friendship”. And we made a compromise, taking the Turkmen version as the official spelling of this name, with the letter “k” at the end, and not “g”, as in the Azerbaijani language,” our interlocutor said.

He also recalled that Azerbaijan has been buying gas from Turkmenistan since the beginning of this year through swap operations with Iran, and that the trade turnover between the two countries has increased five times during this time. Nasirov also said that SOCAR is open to cooperation with its Turkmen counterparts in any fields, offshore and onshore.

“At the Ashgabat oil and gas exhibition, we want to once again draw the attention of our Turkmen partners to the fact that we are not far away - only 280 kilometers from the coast of Turkmenistan. In addition, we have a number of meetings scheduled here to discuss counter proposals that will help determine joint plans for several years, and maybe several decades ahead,” SOCAR Vice President said.

Now oil and gas are in demand more than ever, it has become clear that a full transition to a green economy will require a lot of time, so Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan have the moment for large joint energy projects, Elshat Nasirov added. Also, in his opinion, there is a prospect in the field of hydrocarbon processing. Given that part of the Turkmen oil is transported by tankers through the Caspian and transported further to the Mediterranean, Azerbaijan could accept this oil for processing on its territory or transit products from it through Georgia to Europe.

“Therefore, the Ashgabat exhibition allows us to present SOCAR, “Turkmengas” and “Turkmenneft” as one large agglomerate that should have been created a long time ago,” – Elshat Nasirov summed up.

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