Aliyev said that Baku has no plans to compete with Russia in the gas market

Azerbaijan does not intend to compete with Russia in the global gas market, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with an Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. He noted that Azerbaijan will support the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project if Turkmenistan decides to build it.

“I would like to note one point: neither in the past nor now have we set ourselves the goal of competing with Russian gas in the European market. We have already occupied our niche. We have concluded contracts for gas supplies to three European countries, that is, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria. In other European countries, there is also a need [в газе из Азербайджана]and we are now evaluating it,” Aliyev said.

Azerbaijan currently supplies gas to Turkey, Georgia and European countries. Export deliveries to Turkey are carried out through Georgia via the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) with a design capacity of 16 billion cubic meters. m per year, in the EU – through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), launched in early 2021, with a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters. m.

On June 2, Acting President of the Azerbaijani state company SOCAR Rovshan Najaf informedthat the country has the potential to increase gas exports to the EU via the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). It includes the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline, the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) and TAP. Najaf acknowledged that this would require an increase in the capacity of the SGC. Deliveries to Turkey go through Georgia via TANAP with a design capacity of 16 billion cubic meters. m per year, in the EU – according to TAP with a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters. m.

Europe has accelerated the process of diversifying gas suppliers after the launch of Russia’s special military operation (SVO) in Ukraine, which began on February 24. The European Commission (EC) has developed a plan that provides for a complete renunciation of the consumption of Russian fuel until 2030, called REPowerEU. According to it, the EU countries should completely abandon the import of coal from the Russian Federation from August 10, 2022, from oil – from 2023, and also reduce the purchase of Russian gas by a factor of three until the current end of the year.