Azerbaijan to increase gas exports to the EU by more than 10% this year

Azerbaijan will increase its natural gas exports to Europe this year to 13 billion cubic metres, up from 11.8 billion cubic metres last year. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said this today, Reuters reports. Gas from Azerbaijan is intended to help the European Union replace Russian gas.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU signed an agreement with Azerbaijan to double gas imports by 2027, to as much as 20 billion cubic metres a year. Last month, however, Azerbaijan said the infrastructure and sufficient financing needed to make this expansion possible were not available. Aliyev has now said the country can meet the agreed target.

Aliyev also added that the country must speed up talks on gas supplies with new partners and increase supplies to existing markets. He said new markets include Slovenia and Slovakia.

The need for the EU to secure energy sources from countries other than Russia became more urgent after Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Gas supplies from Azerbaijan are also in focus because the five-year agreement between Moscow and Kyiv on the transit of Russian gas to Europe expires at the end of this year. Ukraine has said it will not extend the agreement. Nearly 15 billion cubic metres of Russian gas currently flow to Europe annually through the pipeline crossing Ukraine, compared with 150 billion cubic metres before the invasion.

In June, Bloomberg reported, citing its sources, that officials from some European governments and companies were in talks with their Ukrainian counterparts about how to maintain gas transit through Ukraine to Europe next year. According to the sources, discussions include the possibility of European companies importing gas bought from Azerbaijan through the pipeline running from Russia via Ukraine. Ukraine is reportedly open to this option, Bloomberg said, because it needs revenue from gas transit fees.