Does Armenia pose a threat to our oil and gas infrastructure?

Azerbaijan's disproportionate economic advantage over Armenia is evident. Foreign experts sometimes speak about it with apparent regret, pointing out this factor as one of the determinants of our army's clear superiority over the enemy. Therefore, all attempts of Armenians to inflict damage to Azerbaijan's economy are understandable. How? For example, back in the summer, they incited a military provocation near the major oil, gas, and transport projects going to Europe, hoping that they could thereby influence our country's positive economic image.

Now, to all appearances, being on the verge of complete chaos and despair, Armenia has not come up with anything better than to threaten Baku with the bombing on oil and gas platforms and pipelines. Armenian MP Arman Babajanyan, clearly in a state of passion, published a post on Facebook with the following content: Western projects, infrastructures, gas pipelines, and oil pipelines worth millions of dollars in Azerbaijan, as a guarantor of regional security, should henceforth be at gunpoint of Armenian armed forces, since the income received from them, the funds of authorities in Baku are used to spread terrorism in the region. From now on, this is a matter of primary importance."

Does the Armenian MP seriously call for bombing oil pipelines and platforms?

Even Hitler did not reach this point in his perversion - yes, he tried to seize Baku precisely because of the oil fields, but not to destroy them.

Terrorists usually make such calls, and we know how cruel Armenian terrorists can be. Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva, commented on A. Babajanian's statements on Twitter with the headline "Another example of terror tactics in Armenia." 

How serious are these threats? The answer is unambiguous - this is such an idle talk that it is even challenging to comment on.

Leaving aside the legal aspects of this statement, and focusing only on economic ones, we want to note that, as the deputy himself admitted, not only Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey are involved in these projects, but Europe is also looking forward to Azerbaijani gas. Washington has consistently supported these projects since the first day. The United States and European countries are the main donors of those international financial institutions that help Armenia survive ...

As for the platforms, any threat to them will also affect Azerbaijan's neighbors in the Caspian Sea - after all, an environmental disaster is inevitable if oil fields are hit. Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan - which of these countries will forgive Armenia for such an insane action?

On the other hand, each state is responsible for the safety of export pipelines and platforms on its territory. And from the beginning of the implementation of projects, and their construction, Azerbaijan, together with its project partners, created a reliable system for protecting pipelines and platforms and attracted advanced technological solutions. Yes, initially, they were built, taking into account all real threats. (Construction work within the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export oil pipeline framework began in April 2003, and then the Karabakh conflict was over ten years old.) All significant investors with millions in these projects are well aware of Azerbaijan's capabilities to ensure their safety.

And today, when martial law is in effect in Azerbaijan, all oil and gas sector activities continue as before. SOCAR and BP-Azerbaijan made relatively unambiguous statements that production and export at the fields in the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey region continue in a normal mode.

According to the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan, oil and gas pipelines are protected at a high level under the safety rules of strategically important facilities.

Moreover, the final work is underway on the Trans-Adriatic Gas Pipeline (TAP) project, the last section of the Southern Gas Corridor, through which Azerbaijan's gas will be exported directly to Europe. Today there is no reason to postpone the launch of this section, scheduled for the end of the year.

So, Armenia's plans to create excitement around Azerbaijan's oil and gas projects are senseless and will not harm our economy and investment attractiveness in any way. On the contrary, coming out with such irresponsible statements about major regional initiatives, Armenia loses hope of participating in such projects in the future: who would like to deal with such an aggressive and frivolous partner?

Expert Gulu Nuriev