Caspian Sea

Host Azerbaijan was set Friday to put forward a new proposal for a potentially major deal on climate financing, hoping to bridge gaps between rich and developing countries on the official last day of the COP29 talks.

Flames soar into the air from a sandstone outcrop on a hillside on the Absheron peninsula near Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, as it prepares to host the COP29 climate conference next week.

The "burning mountain" — Yanardag in Azerbaijani — is fed by underground gas rising to the surface and igniting upon contact with oxygen.

The implementation of the Turkish gas hub project may start in 2024, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak has said.

Speculations are rife about the potential buyer for Lukoil Neftohim Burgas refinery, with Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR emerging as the primary contender, as reported by Trud newspaper.

BAKU - The energy ministries of Serbia and Azerbaijan signed on Wednesday a MoU on deepening bilateral relations in the energy sector and a commercial agreement between the gas companies Srbijagas and SOCAR under which Azerbaijan will supply up to 400 mln cubic m of natural gas to Serbia by end-2024.

Türkiye will conduct oil exploration activities in the eastern Black Sea, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez has said, adding that finding oil in this area is likely.

Orban's foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, the most vocal critic of the EU, is also full of praise. He sees the Turkic states, whose energy ministers he recently hosted in Budapest, as offering "more than a pure energy friendship".

"At the end of the month in Sofia (April 25-26), a large-scale agreement is expected to be signed between several countries, including Azerbaijan, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, on the expansion of the gas infrastructure.

The countries of the European Union Italy, Greece and Bulgaria have imported natural gas from Azerbaijan for 1.6 billion euros in January 2023, Interfax-Azerbaijan reported.

Bulgaria has paid over 383 million euros for the purchase of Azeri gas in 2022. This was reported by the Russian news agency "Interfax" on Wednesday, citing unpublished data from the European Statistics Agency.

The amount represents an eightfold increase compared to the previous year, the agency notes.