Azerbaijan is in talks to expand its natural gas exports to at least three countries in Europe, President Ilham Aliyev said on Friday, Bloomberg reports.
Present at the Ambrosetti Forum, which is taking place these days in Cernobbio, Italy, Aliyev said that his country is negotiating with possible new buyers of natural gas, but did not reveal which countries it is, according to Agerpres.
Azerbaijan, which started selling gas to Europe in 2020, currently supplies natural gas to eight European countries and has an agreement with the region to double its exports by 2027.
Also, Ilham Aliyev confirmed that the authorities in Moscow and Kiev contacted him to facilitate the transit of natural gas through Ukraine to Europe, after an important transit agreement expires at the end of this year.
As a result of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has stopped most of its pipeline gas deliveries to Europe, but there are still some quantities of Russian gas that continue to pass through Ukraine. These deliveries cover most of the gas demand in countries such as Austria, Hungary and Slovakia.
Russian gas supplies to Europe could be further reduced after the agreement on the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine expires at the end of this year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would not allow Russia to profit from sending gas through Ukraine’s pipelines.
One solution would be to replace Russian gas with gas from other countries, such as Azerbaijan or Turkey. That would allow Ukraine to continue receiving transit tariffs for the use of its gas pipeline network, and Europe would be supplied with gas.
The data provided by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Energy show that, in 2024, Azerbaijan exported a quantity of 24 billion cubic meters of natural gas and half of this quantity went to Europe. This year, exports to Europe are expected to reach 13 million cubic meters, in the context in which Italy has become the latest buyer of gas from Azerbaijan. The other customers are Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia, which started receiving gas from Azerbaijan earlier this week.