Faced with high energy bills and precarious deliveries from Russia, Europe is now looking for more natural gas from Azerbaijan, an EU official said on Friday (February 4th).
Russia is the EU’s main supplier of fuel, but the Ukrainian crisis raises questions about future supplies.
However, Azerbaijan’s capacity to produce and export more fuel is limited.
In accordance with euractivEuropean Union Energy Commissioner Kadri Simpson traveled to Azerbaijan amid Europe’s efforts to secure gas from various sources outside Russia and to draw up emergency plans in the event of a Russian gas cut.
The escalation of tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine has raised concerns about Russian gas flows to Europe, prompting the European Commission and the United States to explore alternatives.
Simpson told a news conference in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, that the EU hoped the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) would boost gas exports to Europe from Azerbaijan.
He stressed that the EU hopes TAP will increase its export capacity to 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year from about 8 bcm now.
TAP transported more than 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan to Europe last year, of which a total of 6.8 bcm was transported to Italy.
It is the last leg of a $ 40 billion project called the Southern Gas Corridor.
In a press release, Simpson said that “the current framework” has brought to the fore the question “whether through this corridor we can increase the short-term supply of gas, to compensate for the deficit from other pipelines”.
“We discussed how to bring the Southern Gas Corridor to the next stage. “We discussed the prospects for expanding infrastructure, especially in the Western Balkans,” he said.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said on Friday that the country exported 19 billion cubic meters of natural gas last year, of which 8.5 billion cubic meters to Turkey. The rest was sent to Italy, Georgia, Greece and Bulgaria.
Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov visited Azerbaijan on the same day as Simpson.
Bulgaria has an agreement with Azerbaijan on the import of 1 bcm / year of gas through the southern gas corridor. which is equivalent to one third of its needs.
However, the country is unable to exploit the entire quantity, because the gas pipeline connecting Bulgaria with Greece (ICBG, or Stara Zagora – Komotini) is still under construction.
In early January, Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov opened fire on Athens, claiming that Bulgaria continued to lose revenue due to persistent delays in completing its gas pipeline with Greece.
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