BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 12
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The agreement between the Czech Republic and the Republic of Azerbaijan on energy cooperation is being negotiated, the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade told Trend.
“We intend to sign it as soon as possible, as we have always emphasized the importance of energy cooperation with Azerbaijan and particularly of Azerbaijani crude oil supplies for the Czech refineries, especially for the refinery in Kralupy nad Vltavou.
Azerbaijan, respectively SOCAR is the second most important supplier of crude oil to the Czech Republic and therefore significantly and positively affects the energy security of our state. For example, in 2020 a total of 1.426 million tons of Azerbaijani crude oil went to the Czech Republic via the IKL pipeline,” said the ministry.
Earlier, Martina Tauberova, deputy Minister for EU and international trade at Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade told Trend that Azerbaijan and Czech Republic cooperate very closely in the energy field.
“Czech and Azerbaijani experts made considerable efforts to create Agreement in the field of energy cooperation between the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic,” she said.
She believes that the agreement is supposed to enhance the bilateral energy relations and to support the communications of the experts on the platform of the Joint Commission on Economic, Scientific-Technical and Cultural Cooperation.
"The signature of the Agreement was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak and we hope, it would be signed as soon as possible after the opening of the borders," said Tauberova.
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