None of South Caucasian countries can start war without consideration of oil corporations’ interests

PanARMENIAN.Net - Tbilisi hosted Current State of Energy Security of the South Caucasus conference with participation of Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani experts and journalists.

Expert of the Azerbaijani Diplomatic Acacemy Elnur Soltanov noted that one cannot state for sure that Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline plays a restraining role in resumption of war in Nagorno Karabakh.

“Azerbaijan may incur financial losses in case of war resumption, however, in case of a short-term, two-week war, its losses will not be significant. The country’s reserve totals $20bln, while budget amounts to $10bln, we can return the losses during 10 days. Currently Azerbaijan is stronger than previously. In 1999, British Petroleum (BP) company could make decisions on projects of investments, while today the state’s investments have increased considerably, what allows lessening the dependency on companies. I do not think that currently BP can influence a decision on war resumption,” Elnur Soltanov told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

Meanwhile, Deputy Director of Noravank Foundation Sevak Sarukhanyan believes that the influential international oil corporations, which have made multibillion investments into the South Caucasian energy, are both economic and political factors in the region.

According to Sarukhanyan, the huge investments in the region have become possible only due to political factors and stability guarantees obtained by companies from the U.S and other western countries. The expert believes that none of the South Caucasian countries can start a war without consideration of oil corporations’ interests.

Expert of World Experience for Georgia organization Murman Margelashvili said that energy, having an economic influence, can resolve disputes between countries. “In case of hostilities, interests in energy assist in preserving infrastructure. For example, Russia did not bomb the energy infrastructure during the August war. Meanwhile, Russia is a co-owner of majority of strategic enterprises both in Georgia and in Armenia, and in this case it is a political factor rather than an economic one,” Margelashvili told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

The Current State of Energy Security of the South Caucasus conference is organized by the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) and Norwegian Atlantic Committee (DNAK.)