EU delegation in Baku on energy talks

BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20 (UPI) -- A European delegation met in Baku with State Oil Co. of the Republic of Azerbaijan officials to discuss energy security and the Southern Corridor energy system.

SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev met with an EU delegation led by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt to discuss issues related to the regional energy sector, the Azerbaijan Business Center reports.

The delegation was expected to raise the issue of the Southern Corridor of energy transit networks, which relies in part on natural resources from Azerbaijan.

Regional leaders attended a summit in Prague, Czech Republic, in May for the Southern Corridor, securing the Nabucco gas pipeline as a top priority.

Nabucco would bring natural gas from Caspian and other regional suppliers along a route through Turkey north to European markets. Europe sees the project as the answer to its push toward energy diversification and away from dependency on Russia.

While bragging of the potential of existing structures, notably the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Abdullayev said Nabucco and other future networks were of interest to the Azeri energy giant.

Regional delegates and supporters of the $10.3 billion Nabucco project met in Ankara on July 13 to sign a milestone intergovernmental agreement on the project. Despite widespread political backing for the project, Nabucco has yet to secure firm commitments from supplier nations.