Economic Development in Azerbaijan

[Azeri440]

Iran interested in rapid construction of Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway

Azerbaijan and Iran, which have recently boosted the bilateral cooperation, decided to accelerate construction of the Astara (Iran) - Astara (Azerbaijan) railway line and connecting the railways of the two countries.

Mohammadali Najafi, the governor of the Iranian province of Gilan, said this issue was discussed at a meeting with participation of Iran’s Minister of Communication and Information Technologies and co-chairman of the Iran-Azerbaijan intergovernmental commission Mahmoud Vaezi, Gilan administration reported on September 17.

"The length of the Astara (Azerbaijan) - Astara (Iran) railway is seven kilometers. Its two-kilometer section is being built on the territory of Iran. A decision was made at the meeting to build a cargo terminal in Iran’s Astara," Najafi said.

He added that Iran is interested in the rapid construction of the Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway, which part of the North-South transport corridor.

"This railway will facilitate the way from Central Asia and Europe to the Persian Gulf and connect Iran with these regions and the Caucasus," Najafi said.

He also noted that previously, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani instructed to complete the railway construction in 2016.

The investments made in the construction are estimated at $ 400 million.

At the initial stage, it is planned to transport six million metric tons per year and up to 15-20 million metric tons per year in the future.

Azerbaijan and Iran have had diplomatic relations since 1918. Iran recognized Azerbaijan's independence in 1991 and diplomatic relations between the two countries were reestablished in 1992.

Tehran and Baku have recently intensified bilateral relations with an expectation of further deepening all-out cooperation between the two close neighbors.

Rouhani’s administration, which voiced commitment to enhance ties with the neighboring countries, has given special importance to development of ties with Azerbaijan.

Currently, the two countries are focused on expanding economic ties in various fields, including industry, agriculture, energy, alternative energy, and transportation.

Iran's export to Azerbaijan during the first half of 2015 decreased 55.36 percent to $42.52 million year-on-year. Azerbaijan's export to Iran also decreased 67.11 percent to $11.16 million during that period.

Iran interested in rapid construction of Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway - AzerNews

 

[Azeri440]

Government gives about AZN 2 bn to SOCAR for upstream and downstream projects

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) will receive state financial support in the amount of about AZN 2 bn to be directed for drilling of new wells (upstream) and projects in the petrochemical and refining (downstream).

SOCAR vice president Suleyman Gasimov says that SOCAR and the International Bank of Azerbaijan signed a relevant agreement.

"The Ministry of Finance will act as the guarantor and sign the agreement,” Gasimov said.

He added that more than AZN 1.2 bn of the total amount will be spent on the reconstruction of the refinery and petrochemical facilities of SOCAR in Sumgait. The remaining AZN 600 million are designed for drilling, in particular, on Company’s important field Umid.

Government gives about AZN 2 bn to SOCAR for upstream and downstream projects - ABC.AZ

SOCAR resumes talks with S Korean investors on urea plant in Sumgait

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) is to resume next week negotiations with South Korean investors about financing for the construction of a urea plant in Sumgait.

SOCAR vice president Suleyman Gasimov says that the resumption of talks became possible after the review of the financial mechanism of the project due to the decline in world oil prices.

"Next week we’ll conduct talks with the Korean investors, particularly with the Export-Import Bank of this country, about the financing to exceed the government’s stake in the project," Gasimov said.

He points out that the project is estimated at more than $500 million, and the government will undertake no more than 20% of its cost.

"Once the Korean Eximbank already gave $150 million to Samsung Engineering (general contractor of the turnkey construction) for purchase of equipment within this project. Evaluation of other works on the plant construction is underway currently," Gasimov said.

SOCAR expects to put the plant into operation in 2017 that will allow not only to meet Azerbaijan’s domestic needs, but to export in the long-term prospect some of the products to Turkey and through the Kulevi terminal to world markets.

The plant project is run by Finland’s Nestle Jacobs Oy.

The basic design work on the urea plant began in September 2013 and the construction started on 18 February 2014. The 24 hectare area was allotted for the project. The future enterprise will consist of three production sections: manufacture of ammonia; production of urea; and making of urea granules. The plant will produce 1,200 tons of ammonia and 2,000 tons of urea daily.

SOCAR resumes talks with S Korean investors on urea plant in Sumgait - ABC.AZ

 

[Hurshid Celebi]

Türkiye is happy

 

[Azeri440]

TAP selects contractor for SCADA and fibre-optic cable system

Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG (TAP) has announced a pre-qualification tender for the supply and delivery of equipment for the Project.

The TAP AG press release says that the tender concerns the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system and fibre optic cable. These are the final large package contracts to be awarded by TAP for project construction as company provided items.

The winner should fulfill the following scope of work:

- Engineering, procurement and installation of SCADA, telecommunications and security systems. The SCADA system will provide integrated and centralised continuous monitoring and control along the entire 878-kilometre gas transportation system with all data being transmitted back to the supervisory control centre in the Pipeline Receiving Terminal (PRT) in southern Italy, overseeing the pipeline’s safe and sustainable operations;

- Manufacturing and delivery of approximatively 1,550 km of fibre optic cable.

Project Director at TAP, Norman Ingram, said: “With the launch of these final pre-qualification notices, TAP reaches another important milestone in its procurement process. Together, the SCADA and fibre optic cable facilitate the control system which enables pipeline operations to be safely and effectively monitored and controlled.

The deadline for companies to request the pre-qualification questionnaire is 30.09.2015. Following the pre-qualification stage, TAP aims to issue the related Invitations to Tender (ITT) by the end of 2015.

The tender winner will be awarded by mid-2016.

TAP selects contractor for SCADA and fibre-optic cable system - ABC.AZ

 

[Azeri440]

Baku Cargo Terminal , biggest cargo terminal in the region and among CIS countries
future Cargo Terminals will be built in Quba and Alat

 

[Azeri440]

New passenger vessel to be built by late 2015

Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company CJSC plans to commission the first of three passenger vessels designed for 80 people under construction at the Baku Shipyard LLC, the company reported on October 5.

The cases of all three ships are already built, according to the company.

“Currently, the process of installation of various machinery and systems is underway,” said the message. “Fuel, oil and water tanks have successfully passed hydraulic tests, main engines were mounted, welding on the main deck was finished at the vessel to be commissioned before late 2015.”

The other two vessels will be ready in 2016.

“The ships’ cases are made of steel, while the upper structures are made of aluminum,” said the message. “The use of lightweight materials and the installation of two main engines 1,895 kW each will allow ships to pick up speed up to 40 kilometers per hour. It is twice more than the current speed of the vessels. At the same time, new ships will be able to take up to 10 tons of cargo. This will ensure a more rapid and convenient delivery of oil workers and cargo to offshore platforms.”

The shipyard received an order for the construction of three passenger vessels with a capacity of 80 people each in May 2014. The cost of each passenger vessel is estimated at about 8.5 million manat ($8.08 million).

New passenger vessel to be built by late 2015 - AzerNews

 

[Hurshid Celebi]

Agacan iyi gidiyorsunuz

 

[Azeri440]

Azerbaijan to help Iran to find funds for railway construction

Azerbaijan and Iran agreed on a joint search to fund the construction of the 153 km long Rasht-Astara railway, says Javid Gurbanov, the head of Azerbaijani Railways Company.

“There is no road project yet. The Iranian side has planned its construction, and we agreed on joint fundraising for these purposes,” he said.

Gurbanov said that first, it is planned to connect the railways of Azerbaijan and Iran, as part of the North-South project.

The first phase of construction includes the Astara (Iran)–Astara (Azerbaijan) railway line and the joint construction of a border bridge.

“The length of the Iranian section of the Astara–Astara railway line is two kilometers, and according to the contract, it will be constructed by the Iranian side. The length of the Azerbaijani part of the road is more than eight kilometers and it will be constructed by our side. It is also planned to build a 100-meter long railway bridge. We have already identified the construction site of the bridge and made a special markup,” said Gurbanov.

The company head noted that this project could bring big profits to Azerbaijan, and so its implementation is a major priority.

“The North-South International Transport Corridor was unfairly left without due attention for long time. This corridor will connect Iran, Afghanistan and the countries of the Gulf region via Azerbaijan to Europe and significantly increase the income of our country. Therefore, it is very important to develop this route,” he stressed.

The North-South railway will connect Northern Europe to South-East Asia. It will serve as a bridge to connect the railways of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia.

This project envisages the creation of a border railway bridge between Iranian Astara and Azerbaijani Astara, as well as laying an 8-kilometer-long segment on Azerbaijani territory.

The railway’s capacity will stand at 1.4 million passengers and 5-7 million metric tons of cargo per year, according to preliminary estimates. As many as 22 tunnels and 15 bridges will be built along the railway.

The volume of cargo transportation through the corridor will amount to 6 million metric tons at the initial stage and will reach 15-20 million metric tons in the future.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed during a joint meeting of the Economic Committee of Iran and Azerbaijan in Tehran this October. According to the MoU, Azerbaijan and Iran would construct a railway to carry a capacity of 5 million tons of goods.

Earlier, Javid Gurbanov said that despite the shortest route to St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Berlin, many cities of the Russian Federation, etc., passing through Azerbaijan and Iran, almost all cargo passes around us. That deprives both the railways of Iran and Azerbaijan from profits.

He noted that the volume of freight transportation between Europe and India is 25 million tons a year, six million tons between Russia and Iran, and 30-40 million tons between the Gulf states and Europe.

It is expected that the railway lines of Azerbaijan and Iran will be linked before late 2016.

Meanwhile, the Iran-Afghanistan railway will be inaugurated by the end of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 2016).

Today, Azerbaijan and Iran are focused on expanding economic ties in various fields, including industry, agriculture, energy, alternative energy, and transportation.

Iran's export to Azerbaijan during the first half of 2015 decreased 55.36 percent to $42.52 million year-on-year. Azerbaijan's export to Iran also decreased 67.11 percent to $11.16 million during that period.

Azerbaijan to help Iran to find funds for railway construction - AzerNews

 

[Hurshid Celebi]

 

[Azeri440]

Azerbaijan to earn $700 million. from transit traffic via Kars-Akhalkalaki by 2020

Baku has hosted a regular meeting of the Organizing Committee for the Silk Wind project of container transportation from China to Europe.

At a media conference following the meeting vice president of JSC Kazakhstan Railways Askar Mamin has stated that the meeting participants considered the issue of European Union member countries’ accession to the project.

"Given the commissioning of railway section Kars-Akhalkalaki to connect Georgia and Turkey, we appreciate the potential of the corridor and forecast to ensure by 2020 the transportation volume of up to 300,000 containers. Plans on the development of trade relationships between China and the countries of the Caucasus, China and Turkey, development of surface transit routes in the direction from Asia to Europe through Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan and further with access to Europe also promote to that. The project potential is high, and now all the necessary infrastructure is being prepared to meet the targeted freight volumes," Mamin said.

He added that according to estimates, Azerbaijan Railways will receive additional income of approximately $600-$700 million by 2020 only at the expense of transit.

Azerbaijan to earn $700 million. from transit traffic via Kars-Akhalkalaki by 2020 - ABC.AZ

with the rapid development of Railways and increasing revenues , hopefully bullet trains can become a reality in Azerbaijan past 2020

 

[Kompromat]

Such a treat to see a friendly young country developing so fast. Azerbaijan is on my list now

 

[Azeri440]

Use of Large Hadron Collider for industrial development proposed to Azerbaijan

The visit to Azerbaijan by Paolo Giubellino, the speaker of the ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) under the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), continues.

The National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan (AMEA) says that yesterday its president Akif Alizadeh received Mr. Giubellino.

During the meeting Mr. Giubellino pointed out that the CERN participating countries receive valuable orders for technical and technological development of the industry of their countries.

"The fulfilled updating leads to the inevitable application of new discoveries that give impetus to the development of materials science, technical fields and technologies, and the companies executing those orders become owners of the up-to-date machinery and technologies. Analyzing the activity in this field, it is possible to make a very valuable contribution to the development of the industry in Azerbaijan through the making of project participation proposals to be adequate to technical and technological potential of the country," Mr. Giubellino said.

He invited the AMEA delegation at the head of Alizadeh to visit the CERN in 2016.

In turn, the AMEA and ALICE reps shared their thoughts on the prospects of cooperation between the two organizations. The parties also agreed to prepare a protocol of intentions between AMEA and CERN.

Use of Large Hadron Collider for industrial development proposed to Azerbaijan - ABC.AZ

 

[xenon54 out]

Such a treat to see a friendly young country developing so fast. Azerbaijan is on my list now

Baku is on a serious way to become the new Dubai, Azerbaijans GDP per capita is almost same as Turkey, it wont take long till it overtakes it, probably in the next couple years.

 

[Hurshid Celebi]

Interesting, they learned from the past and don't suffer "DUTCH ILLNESS".

 

[Azeri440]

Baku is on a serious way to become the new Dubai, Azerbaijans GDP per capita is almost same as Turkey, it wont take long till it overtakes it, probably in the next couple years.

would of been better if oil prices didnt collapse but by 2025 oil will account for less than 10% of economy anyway