The agreement signed with the Azerbaijan government has opened up a new path of cooperation with its State-owned energy company SOCAR, the world’s top emerging energy company, according to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
Speaking on One Radio, Dr Muscat said Malta was widening its horizons in the field of energy through the memorandum of understanding with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR).
“We agreed on deals regarding cooperation over gas exploration and the development of Malta as a logistics hub for the provision of fuels,” Dr Muscat said.
The memorandum was signed in the Azeri capital Baku last Wednesday.
Describing the firm as “an emerging energy company looking beyond its country’s borders”, Dr Muscat said the company had already entered into partnerships and joint ventures around the world.
“SOCAR recently purchased a US-owned petrol pump company in Switzerland. I was not the first one to go there as [former European Commission President] José Manuel Barroso , the French President and the Italian and British prime ministers all went there too,” he said.
We agreed on deals regarding cooperation over gas exploration and the development of Malta as a logistics hub for the provision of fuels
SOCAR has a 20 per cent shareholding in Electrogas, the consortium that has been contracted by the government to develop a new gas-fired power station in Malta.
He said this was a “planned” follow-up to the agreement signed with Chinese state-owned company Shanghai Electric Power, which recently secured a 33 per cent stake in Enemalta following a €320 million investment – “the biggest foreign investment deal that Malta has ever seen, in a company that was almost bankrupt.”
A spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister told The Sunday Times of Malta that the memorandum had not been published yet as it had to be tabled in Parliament during a debate that was meant to take place last week and that had to be postponed at the Opposition’s request.
“It will be tabled at the first available opportunity,” he said, when asked for a copy of the agreement.
Asked why there was no technical party on the official trip to Baku, the spokesman said the visit was “purely political” and that the agreement will be followed up by technical delegations in Malta and Azerbaijan.
The main areas of the strategic cooperation will focus on oil and gas exploration, sourcing and logistics of petroleum products, trading in energy commodities in the Mediterranean region, development of new regional infrastructure and innovative LNG services.