Baku News

08 September 2006 [10:37] - Today.Az - Azerbaijan is ready to participate in the Odesa-Brody-Plotsk oil pipeline project. That message was delivered in Baku on Thursday where President Viktor Yushchenko met with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev. Yushchenko told Aliyev that Ukraine is interested in oil exploration, extraction and oil refining projects in Azerbaijan. Yushchenko also offered Kyiv's assistance in regulating the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno Karabakh region. On Thursday, both presidents agreed to create a presidential cooperation council between the two countries.

11 September 2006 [11:21] - Today.Az - Resident of Binagadi District, Rahila Mammadova claims that her land was squatted and she was unable to use her own land. Chief of Committee for the Defense of Oilmen, Mirvari Gahramanli, told APA that Binagadi Oil doesn't allow Rahila Mammadova to use her land. "Binagadi Oil Company claims that this land belongs to the company and documents by local authorities are invalid. Rahila Mammadova has brought a lawsuit against the Company."

12 September 2006 [10:35] - Today.Az - Two pipelines with 4.1 MPa and 9 MPa working pressure are planned to be built to deliver offshore natural gas of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and Shahdeniz to Azerigas CJSC and Sangachal Terminal. SOCAR's Marketing and Business Operations Department told APA that the pipelines will be 4.5 km long each. At the first stage 762x11.9mm-pipeline with 4.1 MPa working pressure will be built. The pipeline will be completed by October 1. The total capacity of the pipelines is 30.5mn cubic meters/day. Khazardenizneftgastikinti Trust will lay the pipelines.

12 September 2006 [16:20] - Today.Az - Oil prices fell to their lowest point since April, to $65.30 per barrel of crude, as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) met in Vienna on Monday, reporting it would keep its pumping crude unchanged at 28 million barrels per day. Analysts speculated that prices might continue to fall as economic growth slows in the US. The price fall is reportedly attributed to the cessation of hostilities in Lebanon and the end of summer holidaying. The supply of oil from non-OPEC countries such as Brazil, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan could cause prices to fall even further next year, APA reports. At the meeting OPEC President Edmund Daukoru expressed concern that prices could fall even further in 2007 if production from non-OPEC nations such as Angola, Brazil and Caspian Sea countries like Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan rises significantly as expected. OPEC, which pumps a third of the world’s oil, thinks that the prices shouldn’t be allowed to fall below $60 while OPEC members long have contended that the $50 range was ideal. Light sweet crude hit a record $78.40 in July 14. OPEC members failed to agree at the meeting on whether to appoint a new secretary-general, a mostly symbolic post now held by Nigeria. Iran has been lobbying for the job, arguing that as the cartel's No. 2 producer, it has a right to a top leadership slot. OPEC has shut Iran out of the position since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

14 September 2006 [10:38] - Today.Az - The tender announced by SOCAR Marketing and Business Operations Department has ended. As APA reports, Glencore Energy UK Ltd won the tender on exportation of 80 000 tonnes of Azeri Light Crude Oil through Batumi Port on October 6-7.

13 September 2006 [10:17] - Today.Az – State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) President Rovnag Abdullayev received yesterday Daniel Stein, NIS regional director for the US Trade and Development Agency (TDA). As APA reports, implementation of joint projects of TDA and SOCAR was discussed at the meeting. Abdullayev said the Program on purification of the oil-polluted territories in Absheron Peninsula is of great importance for SOCAR and cooperation in the field with the World Bank and TDA yields good results. "I think it would be better to create an ecology department at SOCAR in order to efficiently purify and prevent the oil-pollution and polluted areas."

07/09/2006 Baku Today - The rapidly expanding economy of oil-rich Azerbaijan risks increased inflation if government spending is not reined in, the International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday. "The economy is booming to the point that it is overheating," IMF Senior Economist Vitali Kramarenko said at a media conference, adding that the organization had forecast inflation to hit 12 percent in December, compared to 5.5 percent in December last year. Government spending, which has put considerable pressure on Azerbaijan's currency, the manat, increased by 70 percent in the first half of 2006 to just over two billon dollars (1.5 billion euros), the economist said. However inflation could be brought down to 10 percent in 2007 if Azerbaijan follows IMF recommendations such as slashing fuel subsidies, said Kramarenko. Azerbaijan is flush with cash from its booming oil industry which this year is projected to produce more than 30 million tons of oil, a record amount in its century-long history of oil production. "The growth rates are exceptionally high with gross domestic product increasing by 40 percent in the first half of the year," Kramarenko said, adding that it was becoming difficult to make accurate forecasts because the structure of the economy was changing "very fast." Economists warn that Azerbaijan is showing early signs of the so-called Dutch Disease in which a natural-resources-rich economy sees an increasingly strong local currency and shrinking manufacturing sector.