EU rule on government payments: implications for oil & gas industry - CYPRUS MAIL / PwC

Cyprus' president, Nicos Anastasiades

June 19, 2017

An estimated 3.5 billion people live in countries endowed with oil, gas and mineral reserves. Despite the fact that the citizens of these countries are the legal owners of the natural resources, in many cases governments have hindered the efficient exploitation of such resources resulting in unequal wealth distribution, poverty and lack of sustainable economic development. Evidence suggests that this occurs mainly in under-developed countries, with high level corruption and lack of transparency considered among the main factors culpable.

There are a number of examples of nations with a long history of poor governance and corruption where, despite significant hydrocarbon discoveries and initial hope for long term development, an almost total economic collapse was experienced. Per capita income dropped to half of what it was before the hydrocarbons were discovered and only a fraction of total oil & gas revenues accruing to the government was transferred to the budget, with the majority not properly accounted for.

Azerbaijan president: gas pipeline to EU will not be stopped - CLIMATE HOME

11/04/2017, 9:47am
Karl Mathiesen

Environmental protests against the $46bn Southern Gas Corridor are baseless, says Ilham Aliyev, who expects to begin exporting gas through the pipeline by 2018

A massive pipeline linking Azerbaijan’s gas fields to the networks of Europe is an inevitability, Azeri president Ilham Aliyev has told his cabinet.

“The implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor is already a reality. True, there are those who want to prevent us. It is natural. We came across these ten years ago,” said Aliyev, as reported by the Azerbaijan Press Agency on Tuesday.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the world’s largest fossil fuel projects, with a projected construction cost of $46bn.

Azerbaijan’s Lost Transparency - CARNEGIE EUROPE

March 20, 2017

Thomas de Waal

Azerbaijan’s suspension from a coalition of energy-extracting countries will harm Baku’s international brand and image as a reliable place to invest.

Can a petrostate with a rent-seeking elite ever reform itself—or at least clean up its business practices?

That the answer could be “yes” was the idea that drove the founders of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in 2003. The initiative is a voluntary coalition of countries with energy- and mineral-extraction industries that pledge to make their transactions and sources of wealth transparent. The project took off and won support from international financing organizations, and at the start of 2017, the EITI had 51 implementing member countries.

As of March 9, it has one less. Azerbaijan, the Caspian petrostate on the eastern edge of Europe, announced it was quitting EITI after being suspended from the organization. The announcement came just as the groundwork was being completed for an expanded network of three pipelines scheduled to take Azerbaijani gas to European markets by 2020.

Watchdog suspends Azerbaijan, EU gas pipeline loans threatened - CLIMATE HOME

Parts of the Southern Gas Corridor are already under
construction in Turkey. (Photo: Tanap)

10/03/2017, 12:59pm
Karl Mathiesen

Billions in development loans at risk after international human rights watchdog strips Azeri membership for failure to increase transparency

A human rights watchdog suspended Azerbaijan’s membership on Thursday, casting doubt on billions of dollars worth of loans being considered for a pipeline linking the country’s gas fields to the EU.

The government of Ilham Aliyev has been repeatedly asked by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to lift restrictions on civil society organisations. On Thursday the EITI board, which meets in Oslo, decided that the regime had run out of time.

Who needs the Southern Gas Corridor? - ENERGY POST

February 28, 2017
Anna Roggenbuck

In its dogged pursuit of the Southern Gas Corridor, the European Commission is shutting its eyes to the human rights record of the Azerbaijani regime, writes Anna Roggenbuck, policy officer at CEE Bankwatch Network. According to Roggenbuck, there is no justification for this massive gas pipeline project, since it is also bad for the climate and, as recent events show, will not even help reduce Europe’s dependency on Russian gas.

Ministers, ambassadors and envoys from at least 15 countries, including Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission’s Vice President for the Energy Union, gathered in the Azerbaijani capital last week to discuss the progress on the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), the largest energy project the EU is currently pursuing.

But over the past couple of months, it seems the European Commission’s justifications for this controversial undertaking have been crumbling by the day.

EBRD seeks TANAP transparency - NATURAL GAS WORLD

September 27th, 2016
David O'Byrne

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is tying its planned $1bn Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) funding to better transparency in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas sectors.

This was the thrust of an interview with EBRD energy and natural resources boss Riccardo Puliti, published by Turkey's state news agency Anatolia.

Puliti told Anatolia that the EBRD's decision on funding for the TransAnatolian and TransAdriatic pipelines (Tanap and TAP) will depend on Azerbaijan making progress in its ongoing talks with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international initiative backed by governments, corporations and international financial institutions which sets standards of transparency aimed at promoting "open, and accountable management of natural resources" and for which Azerbaijan has candidate status.