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Azerbaijanâ€™s future role in European energy security debated in Paris â€“ PHOTO

Azerbaijanâ€™s future role in European energy security debated in Paris â€“ <font color=red>PHOTO </font>

14 April 2012 12:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. On April13, The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS), the Institut franÃ§ais des relations internationales (IFRI) and the Center for Strategic Studies, under the Azerbaijani President (SAM), organized a landmark roundtable, entitled The Role of Azerbaijan in the European energy security strategy, the Center for Strategic Studies told APA.
The event took place at the IFRI headquarters in Paris, and was attended by around 90 academics, diplomats, industrialists and entrepreneurs who wished to increase their knowledge of this important topic. The high number of participants showed the developing role of Azerbaijan as a European energy supplier.
In her introduction, MaÃ¯tÃ© JaurÃ©guy-Naudin, Director, IFRI Energy Centre, thanked TEAS and SAM for their co-operation. She then passed the floor to Eliza Pieter, Director, TEAS France, who stressed the importance of addressing this topic in France in order to increase French stakeholdersâ€™ awareness of energy topics that relate to both the EU and Azerbaijan. Gulshan Pashayeva, Deputy Director, SAM, then presented some statistics to the audience, demonstrating how Azerbaijan represents the future of energy security for the EU.
MaÃ¯tÃ© JaurÃ©guy-Naudin then presented the five expert speakers to the audience. These were Nathalie Komatitsch, Vice-President Azerbaijan, TOTAL SA; Laura Parmigiani, Research Fellow, Centre for Energy, IFRI; Elio Ruggeri, Head of International Gas Infrastructure, Edison SpA; Gulmira Rzayeva, Research Fellow, SAM; and Konstantin Simonov, Director-General, The National Energy Fund, Moscow. Laura Parmigiani opened the floor by underlining the necessity for EU countries to diversify their gas supplies in order to reduce dependency on Russian Gazprom. Gulmira Rzaeyva then presented the various potential gas pipeline projects starting in or passing through Azerbaijan, and underlined the advantages of the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP), which she described as â€œa self-financed, self-sufficient and scalable project in which SOCAR would own the lionâ€™s share of the infrastructure.â€ She also presented the different Nabucco sub-projects.
Konstantin Simonov and Elio Ruggeri respectively discussed Russian and Italian interests and strategies in the region. Finally, Nathalie Komatitsch presented TOTALâ€™s exploratory and production activities in Azerbaijan and mentioned the extensive resources of the Absheron field. She also stressed the attractiveness of the Azerbaijani market for European investors, where the contractual framework for investments is transparent and efficient.
The presentations were followed by a lively question-and-answer session.