AZERBAIJAN CANNOT BE AN ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SUPPLIER FOR EUROPE – ILHAM ALIYEV

Source: Kommersant, 10/11/06
Agency WPS
The Russian Oil and Gas Report (Russia)
November 13, 2006 Monday

On November 9, 2006, Russian President Putin met with his Azeri
counterpart Ilham Aliyev. Before coming to Moscow, President Ilham
Aliyev of Azerbaijan visited Brussels, the den of Eurobureaucrats,
and stirred it up.

Sources in the Azeri delegation say that Aliyev was told in Brussels
that perhaps he should start thinking in terms of his own energy
policy with regard to the EU. According to Kommersant’s sources,
Aliyev told the Europeans that Azerbaijan couldn’t be an alternative
to Russia in any case. In fact, Aliyev said as much to Putin himself.

"You and I, we are working together, and that’s what I told them,"
a senior Kremlin official quoted Aliyev as saying to Putin.

According to Aliyev himself, he was greatly surprised to discover that
"Brussels has no inkling whatsoever of how our countries depend on
each other!"

Putin and Aliyev would have discussed construction of an aluminum
plant worth $1 billion in Gyandja, Azerbaijan. What information is
available at this point, however, indicates that the issue was never
even mentioned despite Putin’s intention to bring it up.

Aliyev denied speculations that he had given EU leaders any guarantees
concerning transportation of fuel from the Caspian region or that
Azeri oil transportation by Odessa-Brody pipeline to Eastern Europe
had been discussed.

The situation with the same pipeline but a different project is more
complicated, it seems. President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus is
actively looking for alternative suppliers of gas and oil – as long
as their tariffs are not so high as the ones Russia established are.

Russia upped oil and gas tariffs for Belarus once it became clear that
Minsk was not in a hurry to deliver the promised assets (controlling
interest in Beltrasgaz). From this standpoint, Lukashenko has taken
a keen interest in Azerbaijan.

Well, Aliyev told Putin that the president of Belarus is free to look
for alternative suppliers anywhere but in Azerbaijan. Putin is bound
to inform Lukashenko of that at their talks in the Kremlin later today.

According to what information is available at this point, both
presidents made numerous references to the late president of Azerbaijan
Heydar Aliyev who is practically a model hero for both.

However, Putin failed to secure Aliyev’s support in the
Russian-Georgian confrontation. Aliyev only said that Azerbaijan is
experiencing some effects from the Russian-Georgian crisis, and that
he does not want that.

In other words, Aliyev is prepared to play the role of mediator in
the Russian-Georgian confrontation.

He will probably be as successful as Putin is in the Azeri-Armenian
conflict.