SOCAR’s role in international energy projects highly estimated in Japan

On July 8, SOCAR’s delegation led by the Company’s President Rovnag Abdullayev held a number of bilateral meetings with the officials of Japanese government and companies during their business trip to Japan.They met with Yoichi Kobayashi, Vice President of ITOCHU Corporation and Co-Chair of the Japanese-Azerbaijani Economic Cooperation Committee, Takashi Yasuda, Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer for Energy Division of ITOCHU Corporation and other officials. The sides kindly mentioned the useful cooperation between SOCAR and ITOCHU which has continued more than 20 years since the signing of “The Contract of Century”. ITOCHU’S officials highly appreciated the support of SOCAR to partner companies in the realization of Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli project and thanked SOCAR management for leading role in the implementation of the project. The attendees also held talks and discussions on involvement prospects of ITOCHU Corporation in new Oil and Gas Processing and Petrochemical Complex (OGPC) project to be realized in Azerbaijan.

Afterwards, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev met with Isao Iijima, special advisor to Japanese Prime Minister. Appreciating the involvement of Japanese companies in the oil-gas and energy projects realized in Azerbaijan, Mr. Iijima expressed the interest of Japanese companies to participate in the current and upcoming projects. Noting the favourable opportunities for operation of foreign investors in the country, SOCAR President spoke about fruitful cooperation with Japanese companies and informed on the current and planned projects of the company.

That day SOCAR’s delegation visited Japan’s JGC international engineering company. The meeting was attended by Mr. Yoshihiro Shigehisa, Chairman Emeritus of JGC Group, Mr. Koichi Kawana, President and Representative Director, and other officials. During the meeting, participants discussed the latest trends in the global oil and gas industry, JGC's experience in the conduction of newly built and reconstructed oil and gas processing and petrochemical projects, prospects of the company's possible participation in the OGPC project and other issues. SOCAR President and the other members of the delegation met with three young specialists receiving training in JGC Company since March and got acquainted with their training program. SOCAR was informed on the projects, experts were involved in, and their achievements.

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan to Japan Gursel Ismayilzadeh also attended the meetings.