Azerbaijan has started gas supplies to Hungary – Minister

“At the meeting  on September 4 in Budapest, my colleague Peter Szijjarto said that Azerbaijani gas has already begun to flow to Hungary. Our plans are to increase the volume of supplies,” Bayramov said in an interview with the Azerbaijani state news agency AZERTAJ and the Hungarian edition of “Magyar Democrata.”

Thus, 5 EU countries have already become imperators of Azerbaijani gas – Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

“A number of other countries have also shown interest and expressed a desire to buy Azerbaijani gas. In particular, in April of this year, the energy companies of Azerbaijan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia signed an agreement called the “Solidarity Ring” with the aim of using domestic European gas interconnectors to increase the volume of Caspian gas supplies to them through the Southern Gas Corridor,” he said.

Bayramov added: “As you can see, the plans are big. Europe expects to receive 20 bcm of gas from us by 2027. The current dynamics allow us to take this bar. Azerbaijan supplied more than 8 bcm of natural gas to the EU in 2021. Last year it was already 11.4 bcm, and this year it is planned to reach the level of 12.5 bcm, and this is only to the EU countries. In addition to the EU, Azerbaijan is also the main supplier of natural gas to Georgia and one of the largest to the Turkish market.”

The Foreign Minister stressed that in addition to oil and gas, Azerbaijan plans to supply Hungary with “green energy”.

“On July 18, 2022, a Memorandum of Understanding on strategic partnership in the energy sector was signed between Azerbaijan and the European Union, and on December 17, 2022, a memorandum of understanding was signed in Bucharest on the establishment of a joint venture between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary to implement a project providing for the transfer of Azerbaijani “green” electricity along the bottom The Black Sea to the European continent. Thus, the electricity of “green” origin is another segment in the Azerbaijani-Hungarian cooperation in the field of energy. But at the same time, I would like to note that all of the above will be fairly projected to the entire European Union, given that for many years Azerbaijan has been and remains a reliable partner in the field of ensuring the energy security of the European continent, including all the mentioned segments: oil, from 2020 – gas, and in the future – “green” electricity”,  said the minister.

It should be noted that earlier it was planned that Azerbaijan would begin gas supplies to Hungary in the fourth quarter of 2023 in the amount of 100 mcm meters. In addition, there is an agreement between Baku and Budapest to increase the volume of Azerbaijani gas supplies to Hungary to 1 bcm in subsequent years.