Azerbaijan is on track to double gas exports to Europe, president says

Azerbaijan will be able to achieve its planned doubling of natural gas exports to Europe, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced. However, the country still needs to secure long-term sales contracts to make the investments needed to increase production, Bloomberg reported.

The European Union signed a memorandum with Azerbaijan last July providing for a doubling of annual Azerbaijani gas imports to Europe to 20 billion cubic metres by 2027.

Aliyev said Azerbaijani gas exports to Europe would reach 12 billion cubic metres this year, up from eight billion cubic metres in 2021. This shows, the president said, that the country is “confidently moving towards its goal” of doubling exports by 2027. Azerbaijan began selling gas to Europe in 2020.

Speaking on Sunday at the opening of a gas pipeline running from Bulgaria to Serbia, Aliyev also said Serbia would become the seventh European country to receive Azerbaijani gas. Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR agreed in November to export up to 400 million cubic metres of gas to Serbia next year. Exports to Bulgaria are expected to rise next year from 500 million cubic metres this year to almost one billion cubic metres, the president said.