By Azernews

By Rasana Gasimova

Azerbaijan’s Economy Ministry and BP may cooperate to develop the country’s alternative energy sector.

 “The Azerbaijani government is interested in expansion of cooperation with BP in the sphere of joint production of oil and gas equipment and development of alternative energy,” the Minister of Economy Shahin Mustafayev said during the meeting with the BP Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, Gary Jones.

In his turn, Jones said that Azerbaijan has potential in alternative energy sector and that BP is interested in implementing projects in this field.

The sides also exchanged their views on specific projects. The Minister mentioned that Azerbaijan has been successfully cooperating with BP since 1994.

 BP is currently participating in the following projects carried out in Azerbaijan: development of Azeri–Chirag–Gunashli and Shah-Deniz fields, development of the Shafag-Asiman structure, D-230, South West Gobustan, Shallow Water Absheron Peninsula, Araz-Alov-Sharg (the project is on hold), Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and South Caucasus pipeline (SCP).

Presently, Azerbaijan implements a number of measures for further development of alternative energy sector, aimed at reduction of its dependency on oil and gas. The favorable geographic location and climatic conditions allow the widespread use of environmentally friendly alternative energy sources in Azerbaijan.

Along with BP, the Energy Ministry has already signed memorandums of understanding with TOTAL and Equinor on alternative energy cooperation.

The country is currently working on the new draft law on alternative energy sources together with Norwegian company DNV GL.

According to the Market Analysis Azerbaijan 2019, expansion of renewable electricity generation is estimated at 430 MW in 2018-2020, 840 MW in 2021-2025, and 925 MW in 2026-2030. The share of renewables in the total power generation is expected to be 15 percent by 2020, 25-30 percent by 2025 and 35-40 percent by 2030.