Ukraine and the European Union have asked Azerbaijan to help conclude a new agreement on natural gas supplies after the current transit contract with Russia ends at the end of the year.
Azerbaijan can export gas through Ukraine
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said that negotiations with Ukraine and the EU, as well as with Russia, are currently ongoing. All parties, he suggested, are interested in continuing natural gas supplies.
— We will help if we can. I think this agreement can be extended, — affirms the President of Azerbaijan.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said this month that Ukraine is negotiating natural gas supplies from Azerbaijan to the EU as it seeks to maintain its role as a transit country and help guarantee energy security for Western states.
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An agreement to replace Russian gas with Azerbaijani gas is one of the proposals that are currently being discussed, Zelensky said in an interview with foreign journalists.
The EU tried to refuse Russian gas after the full-scale invasion, but some European countries continue to receive it through a pipeline that crosses Ukraine.
The document that covers the transit agreement ends at the end of 2024. With a full-scale war still ongoing, a number of experts expect Russian gas flows to stop.
Ilham Aliyev said that gas production in Azerbaijan will increase due to new and existing projects in the Caspian Sea.
In 2022, Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Commission to double gas exports to Europe to 20 billion cubic meters. m until 2027.
This year, exports to Europe will grow to almost 13 billion cubic meters. m with 11.8 billion cubic meters. m in 2023, as well as 8 billion cubic meters. m in 2021.
According to Ilham Aliyev, supplies will be carried out through the so-called chain of pipelines – the Southern Gas Corridor, which connects Azerbaijan with Europe through Georgia and Turkey.
