Azerbaijan: Tough Talk on Pipelines

‘We do not consider the idea of Nabucco merely transporting our gas from Baku to Baumgarten. We demand from the Nabucco consortium access to the nearby markets as well.’

European Energy Review has interviewed Azerbaijan’s top negotiator Elshad Nassirov, Vice-President of national energy company SOCAR.

Nassirov, sets out quite clearly what his country wants in return for supplying the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline with gas: not just competitive tariffs, but access to downstream markets as well.  Azerbaijan is Europe’s main hope to source gas from the Caspian region and reduce its dependency on Russia. Its huge gas reserves could easily fill one or more of the competing projected pipelines through Turkey to the EU. The country is willing to supply Europe, but the question is with how much and under what conditions.

Azerbaijan’s main concerns are revenues and independence. Azerbaijan does not want to supply more than 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) annually to the 31 bcm Nabucco pipeline, and only against very sharp tariffs and conditions. ‘We are not going to pay for the empty capacity of Nabucco’, says Nassirov. Azerbaijan wants to keep all doors open to alternative sources of transportation. ‘We will not put all our eggs in one basket, however attractive and beautiful it may seem.’

Read the Full Article HERE