TotalEnergies-led natural gas project offshore Azerbaijan safe from Azeri-French tension
(Bloomberg) – Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov told reporters Thursday there’s no risk to his country’s natural gas project led by France’s TotalEnergies despite escalating tensions between the two countries.
France on Wednesday ordered two Azerbaijani diplomats to leave the country, a day after Baku declared two French envoys persona non grata.
TotalEnergies leads Azerbaijan’s second-largest natural gas project of Absheron, holding a 35% interest in the Caspian Sea deposit.
Tensions have risen between Baku and Paris after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev warned France against supplying weapons to neighboring Armenia. The two Caucasus region neighbors are seeking to reach a peace deal to end decades of conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, after Azerbaijan seized full control of the territory in a military assault in September.
While a “path to peace” is open, there are still serious unresolved differences between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Bayramov said.
Lead image source: SOCAR
