UK - Azerbaijan Oil & Gas Partnership Facilitation Programme launched today in Baku

Baku. 29 October. REPORT.AZ/ UK Trade and Investment, the Ministry of Economy and Industry of Azerbaijan, SOCAR (the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) and BP with an active support of British and Azerbaijani Embassies confirmed their cooperation today with the launch of a programme which will assist UK and Azerbaijan oil and gas supply and manufacturing companies to form mutually beneficial and sustainable partnerships.

Report informs, a delegation of 26 UK companies was introduced to over 30 companies from Azerbaijan, as a first phase of a programme that will continue over the next 3 years.

The programme will initially focus on increasing local manufacturing capacity of components, spares , the assembly of equipment packages and training of local personnel plus specialist services with the aim of improving efficiency and reducing the costs of delivering Azerbaijan’s oil and gas production. The cooperation between UK and Azerbaijani companies will create the opportunity for British/Azerbaijani companies to have a strong regional presence and to be competitive in future oil and gas projects.

Mr Rovnag Abdullayev, the President of SOCAR said. ‘SOCAR has been paying great attention on the local content development in oil and gas sector of Azerbaijan and in cooperation with BP, several successful results have been achieved during the last years. As an example, we can provide that most of fabrication and construction works in SD2 projects were awarded to JVs consisting of local and international companies. Therefore, there is huge potential for local and international companies and we believe that this cooperation will bring a lot of success in nearest future” ’

His comments were reinforced by those of Mr Niyazi Safarov Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry

BP’s Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Mr Gordon Birrell was equally enthusiastic ‘BP is pleased to be part of this event and the entire initiative. We believe it creates a good opportunity to join all efforts directed to bringing UK and Azerbaijani companies together.’

Irfan Siddiq, Her Majesty’s Ambassador in Baku, said ‘We are determined to make this partnership programme an integral part of our overall commercial activities in Azerbaijan. We see Azerbaijan as a key hub for the wider Caspian region’.

Tahir Taghizade, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland reinforced the message on cooperation and the continued support of the Azerbaijani embassy ni London for the development of partnerships.

Rufat Afandiyev, head of SOCAR representative office in London commented that ‘developing local content in both the oil and gas sector and more widely is key to the continued growth of Azerbaijan’s economy. We are therefore delighted to be working with UK Trade and Investment on this key initiative’.

The programme will be supported by a high level government to government dialogue and include a comprehensive range of ongoing activities. Details to be announced in due course.