As prepared for delivery

Siyazan, September 23 2019

Hormetli Mukhtar muellim! Dear Mr. Mukhtar Babayev, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources

Hormetli Rovnaq muellim! Dear Mr. Rovnag Abdullayev, President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic

Dear Ms. Rafiga Huseynzade, Vice-President of SOCAR on Ecology

Distinguished Guests and delegates,

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted and honored to join you today at the opening of this new state-of-the-art gas capturing facility in Siyazan, which marks an important milestone in the 4 years of joint work to fight climate change, reduce greenhouse emissions and bring transformative changes in the life of people across the communities near and around Siyazan.

Today we also mark another important date. As many of you may know, the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit convenes today in New York, calling countries around the globe to take action to reduce their environmental footprint.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to acknowledge another milestone date in Azerbaijan –the 25^th anniversary of Oil Workers Day and the Contract of the Century we marked only a few days ago and, with that, I congratulate SOCAR and its staff and all professionals working in the oil and gas industry in Azerbaijan. In this regard, I would like to specifically emphasise SOCAR’s dedication and commitment to improving the energy sector in Azerbaijan and for their contribution to the country’s economic development.

In Azerbaijan, we closely work with the Government to protect the environment, improve the biodiversity of Azerbaijan’s rich flora and fauna, reduce emissions and enhance energy efficiency. Most of our work around the environment is funded by the Global Environment Fund (GEF) and in all of our joint projects we work with designated government entity –the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources most of the time, but also the Ministry of Agriculture and –in the case of the Siyazan programme, we collaborate closely with Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company SOCAR.

As you know Azerbaijan ratified the Convention on Climate Change in 1995 and signed the Paris Agreement in 2015. It has set itself an ambitious target to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions to 35% till 2030 compared to the 1990 baseline.  In turn, in 2015 SOCAR has joined other leading oil companies in signing “Zero Routine Flaring by 2030” initiative, by this, Azerbaijan and its State Oil Company demonstrates a strong will and commitment to take measures for the climate change mitigation.

Since 2015, UNDP has been implementing together with SOCAR a project on Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) funded by the GEF. Already our joint hard work has produced tremendous results improving energy efficiency of buildings and transport systems.

Under this joint project, we have been implementing the Associated Gas Capturing Programme which started in 2017 in Siyazan oil and gas fields and the results of this work we are witnessing with you today.

Our mission in this programme was to capture the associated gas (70-80 percent of it being methane) and distribute it to the end-user consumers living in the nearby villages of Siyazan. The result of this work is stunning. Nearly 7 mln cubic metres of gas that has previously been vented into the atmosphere every year, will from now on be collected through this new gas capturing technology that we are opening here in Siyazan, which can then be delivered to approximately 600 households in 15 villages. These people –and we are talking about more than 1250 people all in all -had never had access to clean fuels. They used wood from the Siyazan forests, kerosene, coal and other harmful fuels to provide heat in the homes and to cook their food.

Overall, our joint project will result in 20 percent reduction of methane emitted into the atmosphere by on shore oil fields –which is actually 4.6 million cubic metres of gas.

Collecting and capturing associated gases, we are preventing the release of methane gas into the atmosphere, which has a significant negative effect on the climate and is one of the key contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Gas capturing has a great potential to prevent deforestation caused by killing the trees and the wood that local communities have been for years relying on as the main source of energy they needed for heating, cooking and other household needs.

In concluding, I would like to reiterate that the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is a key commitment under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The technology installed today has the potential to significantly reduce this emission, while at the same time providing vulnerable communities with clean fuel. We believe such projects need to be supported and scaled up to ensure maximum impact.

Thank you. Chox sag olun!