BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 15
Trend:
Our gas supply can by no way compete with Russian gas supply, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in an interview to the Spanish El Pais newspaper, Trend reports.
“Russian export to Europe is hundreds of billions of cubic meters and is growing. Our export to Europe, as I said already, is not a competition and we never looked at it as a competition. For us, this project was commercial, a project of commerciality. Because now when all the infrastructure pipeline works have conditions. The internal rate of return of Shah Deniz Gas deposit which is the main source of gas supply of our gas supply to Europe and other countries. The internal rate of return increases. So it became a very attractive from commercial point of view. So, we had huge deposits of gas, we needed to have a market,” Azerbaijani president said.
“What could be a market for us? It cannot be Russia, because Russia itself is exporting. It cannot be a big market in Georgia, because Georgia’s demand is relatively small. It can be Turkey, further down, Europe. That’s what we have done. Supplies to Turkey started in 2006 and was growing steadily and supplies to Europe started. For us it’s commercial. It was politicized unfortunately to a large degree without any grounds. The Russian Federation's leadership clearly understands the real substance of the story. Our gas is nowhere alternative, it’s just additional supply which is demanded, which is needed for consumers. For instance, now our gas makes about 20 percent of Turkish demand close to 90 percent of Georgia's demand. By the time we increase the supply to EU will also make substantial part if in EU some member states demand,” the head of state said.