The relationship between Baku and London moved beyond the familiar oil-and-gas script a long time ago, and the latest meeting at the Energy Ministry is a good case in point. Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov received Duncan Norman, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Azerbaijan. The conversation was a substantive one because the two sides, as the saying goes, compared notes across the whole span of their cooperation, from the traditional hydrocarbon sector to clean energy, decarbonization and electrical interconnections.
These days the spotlight has shifted to clean energy, decarbonization, electrification and the build-out of international energy corridors. One of the clearest markers of this new chapter is the solar power plant being developed together with bp in Jabrayil. The talks also singled out the electrification of oil and gas infrastructure that viewed as an important part of the energy transition.
Pride of place on the agenda, however, went to the development of green energy corridors and interconnectors. In particular, the two sides discussed the "Caspian - Black Sea - Europe Green Energy Corridor." The Azerbaijani side laid out where the initiative stands, the findings of its feasibility study and the growing international appetite for the project. It is worth recalling that Shahbazov has already set out some concrete milestones.
In his words, Azerbaijan is counting on the launch of the "Central Asia - Azerbaijan" green energy corridor and the first phase of the Black Sea Energy corridor by 2032. There is real groundwork behind those plans. In May 2024, the energy operators of Azerbaijan, Romania, Georgia and Hungary - Azerenerji, Transelectrica, the Georgian State Electrosystem and MVM - signed a memorandum on setting up a joint venture.
That September the process went a step further, with a shareholders' agreement establishing Green Energy Corridor Power Company, the outfit tasked with laying the Black Sea Energy submarine power cable. In effect, these are links in a single chain. The cable running along the bed of the Caspian and the Black Sea Energy cable are meant to become component parts of a sweeping energy bridge stretching from Central Asia, across the Caspian and Black seas, and straight into Europe.
Black Sea Energy itself is seen as part of a broader infrastructure push aimed at knitting together the power grids of the Caspian region and Europe. Subsea interconnectors of this kind have already proven their worth. They are used to move electricity over long distances and to fold renewable sources into the wider grid.
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