Azeri Leader to Talk Energy Routes

Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliev will discuss oil and gas transit routes with his Kazak counterpart Nursultan Nazarbaev when he visits Kazakstan on August 7 and 8.



During a June 19 summit of the GUAM grouping, involving Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, Aliev proposed that pipeline and other transport infrastructure located on member states’ territory could be used to take Kazakh oil and gas to Europe. He also suggested that Kazakstan and Turkmenistan should join GUAM.



Kazakhstan is already committed to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, but Azerbaijan also wants it to join GUAM’s main venture, the Odessa-Brody-Gdansk pipeline, which is intended to transport energy to Europe bypassing Russia.