Azerbaijan's ambassador to Turkey has described the relationship between the two countries as perfect and unique.
Faig Bagirov made the comments in an interview with Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News in which he confirmed that SOCAR would bid to buy the Turkish state's remaining shares in petrochemical giant Petkim.
Azerbaijan's state oil company already has the majority stake in Petkim through the SOCAR-Turcas alliance.
“The total investment Azeri companies have made in Turkey has already exceeded $10bn. SOCAR is also interested in bidding for natural gas distribution tenders in Ankara and Istanbul, as well as in establishing petrol stations in the entire country,” Faik Bagirov said in the interview last week.
For Bagirov, this stands as an important indication of a perfect and unique relationship between the two countries which have already realized a complex network for the transportation of rich Azeri oil and natural gas resources to world markets.
“These are very good steps,” Bagirov said, recalling a recent agreement between the two countries for transporting 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas to European markets by 2017 through the Trans Anatolian Pipeline project. The ambassador said the feasibility study of the project is expected to be completed by the end of this year and the next phases of the construction will be decided.
“As you know, 80 percent of the cost of the project has been undertaken by Azerbaijan,” he said, adding that the project was crucially important to place Turkey as the main route for European consumers.”
However, while Turkey is cooperating with Azerbaijan to transport Caspian natural gas to European markets, it also allows Russia to use Turkish territorial waters for its South Stream pipeline which will carry Russian gas to the same market. For many, Turkey’s gesture to Russia could undermine its role as a transit country as the European Union-backed Nabucco project is almost dead.
“Diversification is very important in the transportation of energy resources to the world markets,” Bagirov said. “This is equally important for both source and consuming countries. As energy security has become one of the most important issues, each and every country sees it as a national security matter.”
In addition to the security aspect, Bagirov also said the realization of the energy project was very much dependent on the extent to which it would be economic and profitable.
“Azerbaijan is an exporter. Our goal is to sell our resources to world markets. We don’t have the luxury to turn our back on projects like Nabucco. But its capacity is 31 billion cubic metres and we don’t have that amount of gas. We have told the Europeans to find additional gas and in that case we would do our part,” he said, adding that the project owners had failed to make the right calculations from the outset.
The ambassador also said that Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan were very close to making an agreement on how to share the Caspian Sea, a problem that blocked Turkmenistan’s exports of its rich natural gas resources to world markets.