Azernews.Az

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR and Japan’s Itochu Oil Exploration Co inked a Memorandum of Understanding on scientific and technical cooperation on February 22.

The document was signed during a meeting with the Japanese delegation, which arrived in Baku to participate in the ninth meeting of the Azerbaijan-Japan Economic Cooperation Committee.

Yashar Latifov, SOCAR Vice-President for Strategic Development said that Japanese companies are among the most reliable partners of Azerbaijan in the oil and gas sector.

He recalled that Itochu joined the Contract of the Century in 1996 and it has been successfully cooperating with SOCAR for almost 20 years.

Head of the Japanese delegation, Vice Chairman of Itochu Corporation Yoichi Kobayashi in turn said that favorable geographical location of Azerbaijan increases its role as a new energy hub.

He mentioned that Japanese companies are interested in expanding cooperation in oil and gas production, trading and other areas.

Being one of the largest Japanese general trading companies, Itochu became one of the first international companies to be involved in regional oil and gas projects in Azerbaijan.

ITOCHU’s joining to the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) marked the first time that a Japanese or East Asian company had ever become a partner to a PSA for the region.

SOCAR and Itochu maintain partnership in various projects, including Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) international projects.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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