Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan adopted the road map of trade and economic cooperation for 2018-2020. The countries discussed a bilateral partnership in Baku at the 14th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission. Within 9 months of this year the commodity turnover between the two countries has increased by 4% and has made US$102.5 million. The main topic of discussion is transportation of the Kazakh oil and gas through Azerbaijan’s territory. For this purpose, the working groups have been set up within the commission to be engaged in the topic of the route’s competitiveness. The Kazakh Energy Minister said that with the increase in oil and gas production at the Kashagan and Tengiz fields, there will be a need to transport additional volumes along other routes. Today Kazakhstan has the only channel of transit supplies which is carried out through Russia.

KANAT BOZUMBAYEV, KAZAKH MINISTER OF ENERGY:
- The volume of the Kazakh gas will increase. We consider Azerbaijan’s direction as an option. We are considering to build the LNG plant with subsequent transshipment of volumes via the Caspian Sea, to implement them in Azerbaijan and further export through Azerbaijan. For this purpose, a special working group has been set up, which will include representatives of ministries, national companies as well as experts. In the next few months they will have to report how competitive the project is.