Economic relations between India and Azerbaijan are on the upswing, especially with an agreement inked between state-run GAIL and a gas firm of the resource-rich south Caucasus nation which is keen to meet India's energy needs, its envoy said Tuesday.
Ambassador Ibrahim Hajiyev, speaking at a book release function, said that energy cooperation between his country and India is poised to grow and the agreement between GAIL and the State Oil Company of Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) is an example.
The envoy was speaking during the release of the book "Azerbaijan" written by well-known journalist Sheikh Manzoor Ahmad, editor-in-chief of Alam Urdu service). The book is in English, Hindi and Urdu.
Hajiyev said that bilateral trade, which stands at $1.14 billion, is set to go up multifold as Azerbaijan is trying to meet the energy needs of India.
GAIL entered into an MoU with the Azerbaijan firm last month for the marketing, sourcing and shipping of LNG.
In addition, GAIL and SOCAR are to pursue business opportunities in upstream assets across the world and joint investment in petrochemical projects.
Gas production in Azerbaijan is expected to reach 30 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2018 compared with 29.45bcm in 2013.
A major portion of Azerbaijan's natural gas is produced from the giant Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijan's projected reserves are 2.3 trillion cubic metres (tcm), which can go up to 6tcm, according to reports.
