Azeris look to Total for energy boost

BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31 (UPI) — Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyez
began talks with France’s Total and Technip to bolster energy ties.

Aliyez met Monday with Total Executive-Vice President Christophe de
Margerie and Daniel Valot, chief executive officer of Technip, to
expand oil and gas projects already in place in Azerbaijan, the
state’s news agency reported.

“We have managed to construct the biggest production platform in the
Caspian, which was commissioned within the framework of the Sahdaniz
prokect,” Valot said.

Total has been actively involved in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas projects
since 1996 and has a 10 percent share in the project to develop the
Sahdaniz gas field and the South Caucasus Pipeline.

In 2004, the French company joined another transport project, the
construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which transports
Caspian oil to world markets through Georgia and Turkey.

Technip provides services for the oil and gas industry in Azerbaijan.