Maduro visits Baku seeking oil price stabilization

By Azernews

By Amina Nazarli

Oil nicknamed as the “black gold” was the main reason of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s visit to Baku on October 22, as part of his tour to main oil producing countries to boost consensus in order to stabilize crude prices in the world market.

The visit of Venezuelan president was of great interest, as for several reasons, the tour is essentially historical. This is the first official visit of Maduro to Baku and in addition, this is the first-ever visit of the president of the South American country to Azerbaijan.

The head of Latin American countries, experiencing an acute crisis due to the fall in oil prices, was going to persuade Baku to join the initiative to freeze production of "black gold". Together with Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino, Maduro visited oil-rich Azerbaijan for talks concerning “the regulation of oil prices amid the global economic crisis.”

“The aim of the visit was to meet with the leadership of these [non-OPEC] countries in order to discuss regulation of oil prices amid the global economic crisis,” said Maduro.

As the first country to visit, Maduro, chose Azerbaijan and, apparently, not without reasons -- oil-rich Azerbaijan enjoys a firm image of a reliable partner worldwide, especially in the oil sector.

Immediately upon his arrival in the capital of Azerbaijan Maduro put forward a proposal to develop a new formula for the stabilization of oil prices for the next 10 years. Maduro’s proposal at first envisages stabilization of the oil market for the next six months and then the development of a new mechanism to determine oil prices and the formula of their stabilization for a decade.

The non-OPEC counties must cooperate sincerely and openly, they should make joint correct decisions and it is necessary to develop a strong controlling mechanism in connection with execution of these decisions, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev made the statement as he received the Venezuelan president.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed in Algiers on September 28 to reduce production to a range of 32.5 million to 33.0 million barrels per day, which would be its first output cut since 2008. Another meeting on November 30 is set to firm up details of the accord.

Last week in an interview with Sputnik news agency, President Aliyev made a statement as saying Azerbaijan would not increase oil production and exports even without waiting for the decisions of other OPEC member countries.

“As I have recently officially announced, Azerbaijan unilaterally declares that it will not increase its oil output and export, so that the world oil market gets stabilized and the oil prices increase,” President Aliyev mentioned, expressing his hope that other oil countries will also support this approach, and they also, in turn, will take similar steps, as “only in this case we will be able to stabilize the oil market.”

President Aliyev pointed out that oil-rich countries will also get a fair price for their natural resources. “Of course, all countries, especially, OPEC members and independent producers should pay great attention to the interstate coordination issues,” said the president.

“Non-OPEC countries should have a very sincere and open cooperation here. There should be adopted right decisions jointly and a very strong control mechanism should work for fulfilling the decisions. I am confident that if so, the oil price will rise to the proper level which would be satisfactory for producing countries, oil companies, and at the same time for the consumer countries. That’s to say, there should be a balance.

Currently, this balance has been disrupted and oil-rich countries are suffering greatly. This is injustice and this balance should be restored. I am confident that if so, everyone will be able to get benefit and a balance of interests can be ensured as well, because, it is nearly two years that the countries exporting oil to world markets have faced big losses,” said the president.

President Aliyev added that the revenues of those countries, including Azerbaijan are decreasing and this is not fair.

“The justice should be restored. In this regard, I would like to once again mention the special mission of President Maduro,” said Ilham Aliyev. “President Maduro makes great efforts to convince the OPEC and non-OPEC producers to restore this justice. I wish this mission success. Azerbaijan has already said its word. You can refer to us and say that Azerbaijan has already undertaken this obligation and waits for other countries to take similar steps.”

The visit also remembered by signing of three documents, with the most significant one -- joint declaration, which according to lham Aliyev will define the main directions of future cooperation in many fields.

“I would like to especially note the joint declaration’s paragraphs on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This declaration says that the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be resolved within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of borders,” said President Aliyev and expressed gratitude to his Venezuelan counterpart for this fair position.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been continuing for more than 20 years. Twenty percent of Azerbaijani territories, recognized by the international community, has been occupied by Armenians. More than a million Azerbaijanis have become refugees and IDPs on their native lands as a result of this occupation and policy of ethnic cleansing.

President Aliyev pointed out that all the main international organizations unequivocally support Azerbaijan’s position, and especially mentioned the UN among them. “I would like to especially mention the resolution adopted by the Non-Aligned Movement, because, we have recently become a member of this organization,” said President Aliyev.

As part of the visit, Maduro met with Azerbaijan's Prime Minister Artur Rasizade, who discussed opportunities for making investments in various fields.

He also visited the Azerbaijan’s Parliament and together with Chairman of Azerbaijan’s Parliament Ogtay Asadov, the sides exchanged views on prospects of cooperation in interparliamentary relations.