SOCAR

Azerbaijan was on Dec. 6 searching for 29 missing oil workers after a storm caused their offshore oil rig to catch fire, as the president ordered a day of mourning.

A fire broke out on the rig in the Caspian following a storm on Dec. 4 "leading to many deaths," said a statement on the official website of President Ilham Aliyev.    

One person was killed and 30 oil workers were missing Dec. 5 after the rig they were working on in the Caspian Sea was engulfed by a fire, Azerbaijan's state energy firm SOCAR said.

Gas flow on the Shah Deniz pipeline carrying natural gas from Azerbaijan was halted by an explosion in Turkey on Aug. 24 evening, energy sector officials said, with one saying it was thought Kurdish militants had sabotaged the pipeline.

Azeri state energy company SOCAR plans to sell part of its stake in Turkish petrochemicals company Petkim to cash in on a rise in its share price, SOCAR?s president was quoted as saying by Azeri news agency APA-Economics on July 22.

SOCAR-Turkey has built a 65 percent holding in Petkim since 2007, most recently adding a 10 percent stake bought from the state in 2012.

By Chryssa Liaggou

A new obstacle has emerged in the arduous process of privatizing gas transmission network operator DESFA, as Azeri firm Socar has found a way to disengage itself from the sale, following the government?s recent energy overture to Russia with the Turkish Stream pipeline.

Azerbaijan?s national oil company SOCAR is planning to invest $10 billion in Turkey?s petrochemical firm Petkim over the next seven to eight years, SOCAR said on May 12.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will extend a syndicated loan for Azerbaijan?s biggest gas project, Shah Deniz II, EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti said on May 8.

The size and terms of the loan had yet to be decided, he said during a visit to Baku.

Beatrice Maser, director at the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs told BIRN that Switzerland was offering Albania a grant to help it "reap the full benefits of the TAP", the Trans Adriatic Pipeline.

Turkey and Azerbaijan will on Tuesday formally begin construction on a new gas pipeline costing over $10 billion which will pump gas from the vast Azerbaijani Shah Deniz 2 field across Anatolia to Turkish and EU consumers.

The Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project expects BP to resolve outstanding issues soon to become a stakeholder in the multi-billion dollar project that aims to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian gas, a TANAP official said on late March 11.