Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister: “Gas supplies to Europe are expected to exceed 10 bcm by the end of the year”

Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov has attended the Ministerial round table on “Southeastern Energy Transition: Regional Cooperation for Energy Security, Diversification and Green Transition” held in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Minister Parviz Shahbazov highlighted the energy dialogue with the Union following the meeting between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and EU Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson in February this year. “The main directions of Azerbaijan’s energy dialogue are decarbonization of the energy sector, energy transition, energy efficiency, expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor for additional gas, including hydrogen export to Europe, production and export of other types of “green energy”, he said.

In his speech, the Minister underlined the importance of achieving sustainable, affordable and safe energy supply, saying that the solution to this problem is unrelated to giving preference in country’s energy policies either to energy security, diversification or green transition, but with keeping balance among all of them. He noted that the cleanest source of hydrocarbon, natural gas and renewable energy sources in the transition process will act not as reverse poles, but as an equal position energy resources that provide further diversification of energy supplies.

The Minister also mentioned that the Southern Gas Corridor reaffirmed its strategic importance by providing European consumers with uninterrupted and affordable natural gas during the energy crisis, and Azerbaijan is determined to continue its role as a reliable energy supplier for the region and Europe: “So far, TAP has supplied 11.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Europe. Out of the 3.5 bcm exported from Azerbaijan to Europe in the first four months of 2022, 3.1 bcm supplied to Italy, 0.3 bcm to Greece, and 0.1 bcm to Bulgaria. If current pace of daily exports sustains, our gas exports to Europe will exceed 10 bcm by the end of 2022.”

The event continued with 4 panel sessions on gas supply security, regional electricity market, green transition and future vision.