EXPERTS PREDICT DECREASE OF INTEREST OF INVESTORS TOWARDS AZERBAIJAN

PanARMENIAN.Net - Investments in the oil and gas industry of Azerbaijan can "significantly decrease" in short run, member of the scientific council of Moscow Carnegy Center Alexey Malashenko stated this to CNA correspondent. The expert substantiated his opinion saying that "the declared reserves of Azerbaijani hydrocarbon at the Caspian Sea are significantly overstated and foreign companies suffer one fiasco after the other". Malashenko doubted the presence of real perspectives of further development of the region of hydrocarbon raw materials extraction. The reputation of Azerbaijan as "the center of oil and gas industry", which in his opinion has been formed owing to the history and present level of oil extraction in the region, is supported now mainly due to exaggerated estimates of hydrocarbon raw products in the country. "Although it is rather hard to change this illusion, absence of "stability and guarantees" in the country will hardly contribute to attraction of investments in the oil and gas industry of Azerbaijan, - the expert said. - Money is invested not only in oil and politics, but also in stability".

Let us remind that Russian and foreign experts have actively started expressing themselves in concern with hydrocarbon resources of Azerbaijan after the unfavourable outcomes of trial drilling undertaken in the region by a number of foreign companies. In particular, according to the information provided by "Financial Times" newspaper "Chevron" American company was planning to discover one trillion cubic meters of natural gas in Apsheron Caspian off-shore zone, but found "only a thin gas layer". Besides, "ExxonMobil" American company reported about absence of oil in Oguz shore zone. Resuming these and other results of search, "IRNA" information agency arrived at a conclusion that during the three years, which had passed since the beginning of exploration works in the Caspian shelf, Azerbaijan did not succeed in discovering new oil wells.