BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 24. Azerbaijan, which has been delivering gas to Europe through the Southern Gas Corridor since 2020, has big potential to increase its deliveries, Ambassador of Germany to Azerbaijan Ralf Horlemann told Trend.
“Energy has become a very critical and important issue ever since Russia invaded Ukraine and started to misuse energy as a weapon. Europe had to react and reorganize its energy import policy. We had to substitute for the Russian pipeline gas and started to increase imports from other sources. Now, there are a number of providers that are providing more gas to the EU than they did in the past,” he noted.
According to the ambassador, Germany sees great potential in energy cooperation with Azerbaijan.
“This would be perfect in the interest of the EU to diversify its energy imports. In a couple of years, and, with an upgrade of pipeline capacities, Azerbaijan could export 20 billion cubic meters to the EU. As you well know, recently the President of the EU Commission Mrs. von der Leyen was here to conclude the Memorandum of Understanding with Azerbaijan, highlighting exactly this situation,” he said.
As Horlemann pointed out, as it is a very important issue for Germany, the country would like to put the main focus on cooperation in renewable energy sources with Azerbaijan.
“Azerbaijan has a huge potential in producing renewables, in terms of solar power, wind energy, and green hydrogen. It would be very interesting for the EU to tap this potential in order to meet its CO2 emission reduction targets. Therefore, we see big potential for more cooperation with Azerbaijan. German companies, of course, with their technologies, the experience, can contribute a lot in this regard,” he added.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @mariiiakhm