By the year 2026, Azerbaijan plans to increase the annual volume of gas exports to Europe by 17% from 2023 to 14 bcm, SOCAR Deputy Vice President Vitaly Beglyarbekov stated in an interview with the European edition of “Montel News” in Budapest.
According to him, within two years Azerbaijan plans to export about 14 bcm of gas annually to the countries of Southeastern Europe, compared with 12 bcm last year. “We are now expanding the production and export capacities of natural gas, and the results of this work should be ready by 2026, when we will further increase our supplies to European consumers,” Beglyarbekov said. The growth will be due to a combination of production growth and capacity expansion of the three transit pipelines that make up the Southern Gas Corridor, he said.
Beglyarbekov noted that a further increase in Azerbaijani gas supplies to Europe to 20 bcm per year will largely depend on the needs of the region and the willingness of the European side to invest in new infrastructure.
“For example, we intend to supply another 5 bcm through the Solidarity Ring to the Balkan countries,” he said. According to him, similar volumes can additionally be supplied via the Southern Gas Corridor to Italy, Greece and their neighbors.
“This is something that we can produce and supply. I cannot say that it will all happen at the same time or that it will all happen in the same year – it all depends on when the infrastructure will be ready and when our upstream will be ready,” he said. He stressed that “certain projects” do not depend on SOCAR, but on European clients.
“We are interested in increasing supplies, but it is extremely important to have infrastructure,” he said, adding that Europe will remain Azerbaijan’s main market for many years to come.
Azerbaijan started exporting gas to Europe on December 31, 2020. According to the agreement between Azerbaijan and the EU, Azerbaijani gas supplies should reach at least 20 bcm per year by 2027. By the end of 2023, the export supplies of Azerbaijani gas to Europe reached 11.8 bcm.
