Azerbaijan, Ukraine set to enhance energy cooperation

By Azernews

By Rasana Gasimova

A regular 12th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Ukraine Intergovernmental Commission (IPC) on economic cooperation will be held in Kyiv on January 31.

Azerbaijan will be represented by Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov and Ukraine by Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krykliy at the meeting, Energy Ministry reported. 

Expanding cooperation in the trade, economic, energy, transport and infrastructure sectors, as well as in the field of high technology, agriculture, culture, tourism and others will be discussed at the meeting.

Following the meeting, the final protocol and a number of other documents will be signed.

As part of the meeting, Shahbazov together with the President of SOCAR (Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company) Rovnag Abdullayev and representatives of some structures and business circles will visit a number of infrastructure facilities in Odessa.

Moreover, a regular meeting of the Ukraine-Azerbaijan working group on cooperation in the energy sector and a round table will be held on January 30.

Azerbaijan is currently the main supplier of oil to Ukraine. Ukraine imported crude oil worth $309.443 million from Azerbaijan in 2019, which is 76.3 of the country’s total crude oil imports.

SOCAR carries out its activity in Ukraine through SOCAR Energy Ukraine since 2009. SOCAR filling station network includes 59 filling stations in 11 regions of the country as well as two oil tankers.

The main activity of SOCAR Energy Ukraine is to develop a network of petrol stations in Ukraine, organize wholesale of gasoline and oil products. Since late 2016, the company has also been engaged in trade of natural gas in Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev discussed investing in infrastructure projects, enterprises, as well as gas transmission capacities of Ukraine during their meeting held as part of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Ukraine increased by 15.5 year year-on-year in 2019 and the two countries are taking measures to expand and diversify the bilateral trade ties.

In December 2019, the countries held the Azerbaijan-Ukraine business forum aimed to further develop economic and trade relations. Over 90 companies from Ukraine and more than 100 companies from Azerbaijan participated in the forum.

Azerbaijan has already invested $1 billion in the Ukrainian economy and we want to invest another $1.5 billion in the future.