During 20–21 May the Azerbaijan Oil and Industry University SPE Student Chapter conducted “Caspian Energy Summit.” This is the first SPE student summit in Azerbaijan and Russia/Caspian region focusing on transitioning from oil and gas to renewable energy.
The summit was organized with the support of French-Azerbaijani Universityand sponsorship of SPE Azerbaijan section, BP, Equinor, and Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University.
“The theme of energy transition is extremely important to ensure that we have a sustainable energy future not only for our generation but also for upcoming generations. At SPE we believe that the energy system of the future has to be sustainable from many aspects: 1) energy availability, 2) energy security, and 3) energy affordability and finally clean energy” said 2022 SPE President Kamel Ben-Naceur in his video message welcoming the summit participants.
The SPE President’s message was followed by speeches on “Overview of Azerbaijan Renewable Energy Outlook” by SPE Azerbaijan Section Director Aleksandra Khramtseva; “SPE Gaia Introduction” by SPE Gaia Regional Liaison Ilyas Sarybekov. In their speeches, representatives of key energy companies in Azerbaijan such as BP, Socar, Equinor, Total, EcoEnergy, Socar Downstream, and Masdar talked about their transition outlook, ongoing and future projects, challenges for the next generation, as well as the technical aspects of energy transition.
The summit was followed by a team competition on renewable energy projects. Each of the teams was assigned a specific topic and provided the necessary materials to get started. Members of the 11 teams were young professionals and students from three local universities. Every team presented their project to a panel of judges made of professors from French-Azerbaijani University and industry professionals from EcoEnergy, TotalEnergies, Socar Downstream, and European Bank of Reconstruction and Development who are working on renewable energy. Team “SuperNova” from French-Azerbaijani University won the first place in the competition.