Azerbaijan’s gas exports to Europe will exceed 10 billion cubic meters this year, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov announced on Thursday at Baku’s “Energy Week”, EFE reports.

“In the first five months, 6.8 billion cubic meters of gas were exported from Azerbaijan. Another 16 billion cubic meters will be exported by the end of the year,” he said.

As for Europe, gas exports “will exceed 10 billion cubic meters in 2022,” he added.

Last year, gas exports from Azerbaijan amounted to 22 billion cubic meters, of which 8.2 billion cubic meters were destined for Europe, according to Agerpres.

Azerbaijan currently exports gas to Georgia, Turkey and Europe, more specifically to Italy, Greece and Bulgaria.

The Minister pointed out that, in the short term, the priority of the Azerbaijani Government is to develop the export infrastructure to be able to supply gas to the Balkans.

In fact, on Wednesday, the country’s president, Ilham Aliyev, said that Azerbaijan is ready to expand the South Gas Corridor and increase supplies in Europe, as demand grows on the Old Continent.

The southern gas corridor, supplied from the giant Shah Deniz II field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, is about 3,500 kilometers long and became operational on 31 December 2020.

It consists of the Transadriatic Gas Pipeline (TAP), the last section, which connects the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) to the Turkish-Greek border Kipoi, crosses Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea and ends in southern Italy.

TAP capacity is currently 10 billion cubic meters per year, but may increase to 20 billion cubic meters with the addition of two compression stations and the modification of existing ones.

The cost of the project is estimated at about 4.5 billion euro.