Baku,Azerbaijan-On December 17, 2009, Ambassador Richard Jones, the Deputy Executive Director of International Energy Agency (IEA), delivered a speech within the “Global Perspectives” series at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy.

At his opening remark, Ambassador Jones emphasized that Azerbaijan is among the short-list of countries where “The World Energy Outlook 2009” is presented today, which according to him, signifies the growing role of Azerbaijan as a reliable source of oil and gas in the world energy market.

He stated that as the fossil fuels remain the dominant source of primary energy worldwide, and the share of gas in the global primary energy mix will be increasing for the years to come, the importance of gas importuning countries like Azerbaijan will continue to grow. While energy production in Europe will be decreasing, the Caspian basin will provide more resources to the world energy market.

Ambassador Jones, a career Foreign Service Officer, served as a U.S. ambassador to Lebanon (1996-1998), Kazakhstan (1998-2001), Kuwait (2001-2004) and to Israel (2005-2008). He also acted as the U.S. Secretary of State’s Senior Advisor and Coordinator for Iraq Policy from February-August, 2005. In Kazakhstan, he was the key liaison between the U.S. government and the Presidency on the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline and other critical energy issues.

The lecture was followed by a “Q&A” session.