Azerbaijan received applications from more than 10 European countries for gas supplies

Azerbaijan received applications from more than 10 European countries for gas supplies

Image of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Credit: Wikipedia - By Quirinale.it, Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=122534443

More than 10 European countries have allegedly approached Azerbaijan asking for gas supplies.

According to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, his country has received applications from more than 10 European countries requesting to either increase or start gas supplies to Europe. He mentioned this while speaking on Friday, November 25, at the international conference ‘Along the Middle Corridor: Geopolitics, Security and Economics’.

“After the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, we received applications from more than 10 European countries with a request to either increase or start gas supplies to Europe. We are currently considering these applications”, Aliyev said.

According to him, Azerbaijan does not have sufficient volumes of gas at the moment to satisfy all applications. “Therefore, we need to immediately start commercial negotiations, mainly with countries that receive Azerbaijani gas, because the pipelines are already functioning and the necessary legal framework exists”, he added.

Speaking about the plan to expand the geography of deliveries, Aliyev stressed that the Azerbaijani side fully supports the European initiatives for the construction of interconnectors. 

“The laying of one of them – between Greece and Bulgaria – took place in October in Sofia, where I was also present. The second one between Bulgaria and Serbia will be ready next year”, detailed Aliyev.

The president revealed that Baku is actively working with the Albanian government on investment in the country’s gas distribution network because such a network does not exist there. As he explained: “Albania is only a transit country. But they also need gas to meet local needs”.

On December 31, 2020, Azerbaijan began commercial gas supplies to Europe through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline. Deliveries, calculated for 25 years, provide for the annual export of more than 10 billion cubic metres of gas to the European market. Italy will receive 8 billion cubic metres while another 1 billion cubic metres will go to Greece and Bulgaria.

The Southern Gas Corridor stretches for 3,500km from Baku to southern Italy through Georgia, Turkey, Greece. and Albania. It is an integrated pipeline system that includes – in addition to the Trans-Adriatic pipeline – the South Caucasus and Trans-Anatolian gas pipelines.

Its capacity is 16 billion cubic metres of gas. The main source of raw materials for it is the Shah Deniz field with reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic metres. Currently, the total gas reserves in Azerbaijan are estimated at 2.6 trillion cubic metres, as reported by tass.ru.

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Written by

Chris King

Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com

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