Speaker: Gulmira Rzayeva
Date: Monday, 14th March 2011
Time: 10.30am-12.00pm
Venue: ESI Conference Room
29 Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Block A #10-01
Singapore 119620
Please register early. Please email your name, organisation and email address to
Ms Jan Lui at esilyyj@nus.edu.sg by 28th February 2011 to help us gauge the response.
Abstract
The Caspian region is rich in oil and natural gas with both economic and political implications for the regional oil and gas exporters as well those regional and non-regional countries depending on oil and gas exports from this region. Against a background of a growing global demand for gas, the Caspian regions’ large gas reserves are becoming more prominent to elevate the status of Azer-baijan as a regional gas exporter. Being manifested in the operation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum Gas Pipeline in 2006, the first wave of foreign interest in Azerbaijan’s gas industry is now followed by the second wave. Accordingly, foreign energy companies are now making huge investments in exploitation and development of new gas fields in Azerbaijan. This might tremendously increase the volume of the country’s gas reserves to enable Azerbaijan to meet the medium- and long-term gas requirements of its current and also future potential customers.
However, Azerbaijan needs to secure reliable export routes to continue and increase its gas ex-ports, a sensitive issue complicated especially by political and security challenges as the country’s lack of direct access to the international markets makes it rely on its neighboring countries for gas exports. Azerbaijan is situated in a very politically-challenging region squeezed between such important countries like Russia and Iran and being in the proximity of Turkey and Europe. Given the strategically important and complicated nature of its neighbors, Azerbaijan pursues the policy of “harmonization” of interests towards its neighbors. It therefore envisages and participates in all the possible gas-export routes, including the East-West, North-South and South-North axes as well as the Southern Corridor project (Nabucco). Among others, the mentioned energy and geopolitical challenges will be discussed during the seminar.
Agenda
10.30 am: Arrival and opening remarks
10.45am: Seminar Presentation
11.45am: Q &A session
About the speaker
Ms. Gulmira Rzayeva is a research fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Her area of expertise include energy security covering issues such as the energy policy of Azerbaijan and Black Sea/Caspian region energy security.
As part of her engagements in the field of energy security, she has worked at the Moscow Carnegie Center as a visiting research fellow. Her other engagements in this field include a fellowship awarded by the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute Silk Road Studies Program, a joint program of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University/USA and the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy/Sweden, and the Rumsfeld Foundation Programme, USA. Over time she has participated as an invited speaker in a number of international conferences on energy security issues both in Azerbai-jan and elsewhere, including Europe. Having a BA in international relations from the Baku Slavic University and an MA in Global Affairs from the University of Buckingham, UK, Ms. Rzayeva has published several scholarly publications focusing on her area of expertise.
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