OREANDA-NEWS. October 3, 2011. SOCAR President Mr. Rovnag Abdullayev met with Mr. Charles Hendry, UK Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change. Welcoming the guests, Mr. Abdullayev spoke about the role of oil and gas industry in the development of the country. He said that foreign oil majors, including BP, had played an important role in the achievements of Azerbaijan's oil and gas sector in recent years.

He noted with approval the experience of beneficial cooperation between SOCAR and BP on the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli, Shahdeniz, and Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan projects. The companies represented in the British delegation expressed interest in the projects in the Azerbaijani energy sector. The participnts heard about preparations to build the new oil and gas refinery and petrochemicals complex and about major ecological projects carried out by SOCAR. SOCAR President said that Azerbaijan was open to foreign investment and carefully considered cooperation proposals from all companies.

The meeting also discussed the prospects for future cooperation in the energy sector between the UK and Azerbaijan, the transportation of gas to Europe and other issues of mutual interest.