Energy Minister: Works on reform package on renewable energy sources are underway - INTERVIEW

Baku. 26 December. REPORT.AZ/ Report interviews Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov:

- OPEC and non-OPEC countries made a decision o cut output at the 5th meeting on December 7 in Vienna. Azerbaijan was among the countries supporting the output cut. What are your forecasts on oil price in 2019?

- You know, it’s difficult to forecast oil price. However, to my mind, OPEC+ made necessary and timely decisions. This allows oil market to be balanced and oil prices to be stabilized.

- You said that one of the OPEC+ meetings would be held in Baku. Are the date and details of that meeting known?

-  The meeting is planned in the first quarter of 2019. We think that the meeting may be held in late February or early March. However, the concrete date is unknown.

- For the present, a number of energy projects are being carried out with the participation of Azerbaijan. Are negotiations being conducted with any international financial organization to finance the projects in 2019?

- This is an ongoing process and, if needed, negotiations, consultations are conducted with relevant financial organizations. However, there is a relevant restoration program in energy field. This program is executed. Therefore, President Ilham Aliyev allocated funds and these processes will continue next year.

- While analyzing your recent views, we see that most of them mainly included discussion of alternative and renewable energy issues. What are the plans and forecasts of the ministry for the next year?

- Currently, the volume of the renewable energy sources is increasing in the country. This is not a significant growth. But we want this growth to be bigger. Therefore, we are preparing a reforms package. If we conduct these reforms, Azerbaijan will become an attractive country for both domestic and foreign investments. Certain preparations are underway in this direction. We have involved experienced experts. Of course, the countries are different. Taking into account Azerbaijan’s characteristics, we are working on reforms package jointly with those experts and other state bodies. What does this package envisage? The package firstly envisages amendments to legislation and elaboration of various promoting mechanisms. At the end, if renewable energy sources are created in our energy network, their connection to the general network plays an important role. This is not so easy. In order to keep the system stable, it’s needed to prepare certain technical provisions. We are working on it. That is, works are underway on all three directions.