Baku - Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev says with his country’s growing reputation as a natural gas producer, Azerbaijan has an increasing role to play in Europe’s energy sector.
Speaking at the opening of the four-day 21st Caspian International Oil & Gas Exhibition in Baku, Aliyev said Azerbaijan’s proven natural gas reserves are at least 2.5 trillion cubic meters.
This, Aliyev said, would play an important role in Europe’s energy security.
“Azerbaijan used to be known as a country of oil. Now we are also known as a natural gas producer,” said Aliyev.
Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan is one of the largest in the world, with nearly 1.4 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. Apart from Azerbaijan, gas extracted from Shah Deniz field is exported to Georgia and Turkey.
An additional phase of drilling and pipeline projects has been undertaken in recent years in order to extract additional gas from Shah Deniz and export it to European markets via TANAP (Trans Anatolia Natural Gas Pipeline).
Turkey signed an important agreement on Friday with Azerbaijan, raising Turkey's state owned petroleum corporation (TPAO) shares from 9% to 19% in the Shah Deniz natural gas field and it also increased its shares in TANAP from 20% to 30%.
Head of TPAO, Besim Sisman, told the press during the exhibition that TPAO hopes to increase its presence in Azerbaijan with new projects in the future.
Some 402 companies from 29 countries present their products and services at the 21st Caspian International Oil & Gas Exhibition. TPAO is among the participating companies. – SAnews.gov.za-Anadolu Agency
