Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, whose country is due to host the COP29 summit on climate change in October, said that his country is committed to the green energy transition, but that the world cannot abandon fossil fuels in the near future, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
In a speech in Baku, Aliyev said: "Azerbaijan, as I said, is in the active phase of green transition, but at the same time, no one can ignore the fact that without fossil fuel, the world cannot develop, at least in the foreseeable future."
In his remarks, he described Azerbaijan's COP29 presidency as an "honor" that showed his country was serious about combating climate change.
He said that Azerbaijan was voluntarily choosing to transition towards renewable energy, even as its proven reserves of oil and gas were enough to last a century.
Azerbaijan is a major oil and gas producer that is key to the European Union's plans to reduce its dependency on Russian energy imports.
Baku's bid received approval in December from nearly 200 countries, including longtime adversary Armenia, with which it is currently engaged in peace talks to end a conflict which has lasted more than three decades.
The United Arab Emirates, the host of last year's COP28 summit, previously came under criticism for its own major oil and gas sector and high carbon emissions.
We remind, SOCAR is shipping Azeri BTC oil to Thailand via Africa's Cape of Good Hope to avoid the Red Sea, according to LSEG and Kpler data and traders. Attacks by Yemen-based Houthi forces on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are driving up freight costs and disrupting global trade. The Tilos I is carrying some one million barrels of Azeri BTC crude oil which was loaded at Turkey's Ceyhan port on January 22, according to LSEG and Kpler consultancy data.
mrchub.com