Azerbaijan’s SOCAR Eyes Entering Bulgarian Oil Products Market
By Maksim Tsurkov
Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR is interested in entering the Bulgarian oil products market, head of SOCAR Balkan Murad Heydarov told reporters.
He noted that currently SOCAR is holding talks on the possibilities of benefiting from Bulgaria’s gas and oil products markets.
“Such talks are underway. We believe this market is very promising. From Bulgaria’s point of view, this also covers the diversification of oil products supply. However, this is a long-term project. This issue will also be discussed during the upcoming meeting of the Azerbaijan-Bulgaria intergovernmental commission in Baku,” said Heydarov.
The fourth meeting of the Azerbaijan-Bulgaria intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation will be held Sept. 27-29 in Baku.
Bulgaria is one of the buyers of Azerbaijani gas. The country will receive gas from Azerbaijan from 2020. Bulgarian government plans to buy 1 billion cubic meters of gas per year with the possibility of increasing the volume in the future.
Currently, the talks on delivering Azerbaijani gas via the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) continue. IGB is expected to be connected to the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor.
Bulgaria also believes that not only this can be an area of cooperation in the energy sector.
Bulgarian government presented a package of projects to Azerbaijan in 2015 for energy cooperation. Azerbaijani side was proposed to take part in the construction of a gas station, to invest in construction of oil and gas storages and refineries.
