BP’s VP on three decades in Azerbaijan and a shift to renewable energy
British Petrolium’s Caspian Region Vice President Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli reflects on more than 30 years in Azerbaijan, highlighting milestones and ongoing projetcs.
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00:00We're happy, we're proud to contribute to the country's energy infrastructure development
00:05and also recently to the energy transition story of the country as well.
00:17Hello everybody and a warm welcome back to another episode of Energy Frontiers brought to you from Baku.
00:24Today we're looking back through Azerbaijan's energy archives
00:27with one of its longest-standing international partners, BP.
00:31Having operated in the country for more than 30 years, we asked BP's Caspian Vice President
00:36what does the future hold as the country increasingly moves to a decarbonised portfolio?
00:42But first, here's a quick look of how it all began for BP.
00:45BP first opened for business in Baku in 1992.
00:50Two years later, a landmark production sharing agreement for the Azeri-Chirag Deepwater-Ganashley oil field,
00:56better known as the Contract of the Century, was signed between the government of Azerbaijan, BP and its partners.
01:04More agreements soon followed, amongst them the Chardonnay's gas condensate field in the Caspian Sea.
01:11By 1997, BP's first oil was produced from the Chirag platform
01:16and in 2006, the Baku-Tbilisi-Yehan pipeline carried crude to the Mediterranean.
01:23Two years later, gas began flowing through the South Caucasus' pipeline
01:27and by 2018, the inauguration of the Southern Gas Corridor linked Azerbaijan's resources straight to Europe.
01:35In recent years, BP and Azerbaijan's state energy company Socar have deepened their cooperation,
01:42collaborating on renewables, solar and low-carbon opportunities in line with the nation's net-zero ambitions.
01:50And with decades of partnership and progress behind them,
01:53BP is keen to have a legacy that reaches beyond upstream
01:56and extends to uplifting communities across Azerbaijan.
02:00Dr. Bakhtia, it's wonderful to see you. Thank you so much for talking to me today.
02:05Thank you very much for inviting me.
02:06BP was one of the main architects of the Contract of the Century.
02:11And of course, you're still the largest foreign investor in Azerbaijan today.
02:15You have an amazing 30-year history so far with the country.
02:19But as it looks towards the energy transition, how do you see the next 30 years?
02:23Let me first start with the fact that the true architect of the Contract of the Century is Azerbaijan itself.
02:31And to be more precise, the national leader, Hedar Aliyev.
02:34That was his leadership vision that created all the following processes and everything,
02:41all the biggest achievements, all the big milestones that we achieved together.
02:45It's just the result of his foresight politics.
02:48And one of the first companies who came to Azerbaijan right after the restoration of the independence early in 1992.
02:56And since then, we always are very proud of the trust of the government
03:00that trusted the operationship of the two very major strategic assets of the country,
03:06but also always felt that responsibility.
03:09If you look back, that journey is really, truly remarkable.
03:15The numbers tell the powerful stories.
03:17It's about 4.5 billion barrels of ACG oil, 257 billion cubic meters of Shaq-Denise gas.
03:24It's about more than 6,000 tankers from Jehan to the world markets.
03:30It's basically the energy that the world needed.
03:32We're happy to supply from the Caspian.
03:36In addition to hydrocarbon projects that we jointly developed with the government, with Socar, with other partners,
03:43we're really proud of our new solar energy project in the region.
03:48You referenced the Shafag solar projects.
03:51Let me ask you about that, because it's the first large-scale renewable project that Bibi has had here in Azerbaijan.
03:57You've called it world class, but if we look around the world,
04:01similar projects of its kind are stalling or even being delayed,
04:05facing off-take bottlenecks or financing challenges.
04:08What guarantees do you have that this flagship project will go to plan?
04:13We're jointly developing the Shafag project.
04:15And the virtual power transfer project is basically about developing 240 megawatt of the solar energy in Jabril region
04:23and then handing over that energy to national grid.
04:27And then they're getting about the same equivalent of the electricity in Sangachal Terminal to electrify Sangachal Terminal.
04:35If you also think about that cycle, the Hydroenergy Company, part of the revenues generated from hydrocarbon business,
04:46invested into the solar farm.
04:48And the solar electricity generated in that farm redirected to the electrification of the Sangachal Terminal,
04:55which in turn decreases the emission by 50% over the future life.
05:00At the peak of the project, we'll have about 400 jobs on the side.
05:03And for future, we believe that its model itself could be a great model to use for other projects as well.
05:12BP's ongoing upstream exploration and production side of things is no secret here in the Caspian Blocks.
05:19But how does that marry?
05:21How does that sit with Azerbaijan's decarbonization strategy and you as a green growth partner going forward?
05:28That's a great question.
05:30This is exactly what our strategy is all about.
05:32We continue operating the mature fields like ACG under the contract of the century and Chatinis.
05:38But at the same time, we are talking to the government, to the Minister of Energy, to Sokar and other parts of the government about the new projects.
05:47Recently, we started, we signed a new agreement for the development of non-NAC project, non-associated gas under the ACG.
05:56We're already expecting first gas very soon.
06:00Chatinis compression, this is another $2.9 billion project, a capex project.
06:05Basically, that would help us to keep our Chatinis gas production at the top.
06:13And that should enable us to bring more gas from Chatinis field to the world markets.
06:20It's also about the Karabakh field, new oil field, new contract that was signed last summer.
06:27BP is keen to leave a legacy in Azerbaijan that extends beyond barrels, beyond megawatts, beyond partnerships.
06:33So tell me more about the app that you've co-developed.
06:37And it covers everything from sign language to meditation.
06:40Skeptics might say it's a left-field move for an oil major to be doing this.
06:45So why the app and why now?
06:47They've always tried to contribute to the social development of the society.
06:51We're trying to invest into education, environment, enterprise development,
06:56in promoting of the rich cultural heritage of the country, supporting sport activities.
07:01So that was part of the CSR activities.
07:04And recently, that the SPR was developed together with partners on application
07:10that would help to get to a more inclusive society.
07:15Or recently, we had a presentation of the textbooks, international textbooks,
07:23translated into Azerbaijan, and we delivered that to universities.
07:26At the same time, we're paying quite a serious attention on environmental projects,
07:31on the tree planting activities, reforestation activities, water neutrality type of the projects,
07:37and always the cultural heritage.
07:39Dr. Bakhtia, we have to leave our conversation there.
07:41But thank you so much for your time today.
07:43Thank you very much.
07:44Pleasure is mine.
07:45Well, that's all we have time for in this episode of Energy Frontiers,
07:49brought to you from our studio in Baku, Azerbaijan.
07:52Thanks for watching.
07:52I hope you enjoyed it.
07:53And for more shows like it, just head to eurinews.com.
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