BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 20. Important statements regarding the demand for Azerbaijani gas on the European market were made during this week, Trend reports.
Slovenia's Minister of Infrastructure, Bojan Kumer, said that Slovenia considers the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) as one of the options for gas imports.
Deputy Energy Minister of Azerbaijan, Elnur Soltanov, has also made some important statements regarding the expansion of the SGC.
According to the deputy minister, the EU needs to outline support mechanisms for the SGC, including financial incentives and practical possibilities for rationalizing supply as well as to create additional regulatory provisions.
Soltanov noted that talks on the possible launch of gas exports from Azerbaijan to the Western Balkans are underway.
He added that Azerbaijan is considering several options for the implementation of the green electricity export project to Europe. Meanwhile, with support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), work is underway to develop a hydrogen production and export strategy in Azerbaijan, that covers current and future demand, current and projected production, analysis of hydrogen production costs, political, regulatory, and financial context, and assessment of the potential for exporting low-carbon hydrogen to energy markets.
This week, it was also announced that the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan and the EBRD plan to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on technical support for the development of the electricity sector of Azerbaijan in the near future.
Meanwhile, as the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) consortium reported, gas supplies through the TAP, which is part of the South Gas Corridor, significantly increased. More than 9.3 billion cubic meters of gas were transported from January through October 2022. At the same time, more than 8.14 billion cubic meters of gas were transported to Italy, which is 58 percent more than in the same period of the previous year. Since the start of commercial operations, the TAP has safely transported over 18 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Greece, Bulgaria, and Italy.
At the same time, the TAP consortium has launched the binding
phase of the market test for capacity increase. The binding phase
was launched on November 14, and the offers can be presented in
January 2023.
Since the beginning of the year, Azerbaijan has increased
commercial gas production. According to the report, for the first
10 months of 2022, Azerbaijan increased the production of
commercial gas by 8.6 percent compared to the same period of 2021.
Natural gas production in Azerbaijan from January through October
2022 amounted to almost 38.4 billion cubic meters, including
commercial gas - 28.6 billion cubic meters. Natural gas production
increased by 7.5 percent year-on-year.
In addition, Azerbaijan's revenue from gas exports also increased - from $2.9 billion from January through October 2021 to $14.6 billion in the first 10 months of 2022.
Moreover, Russia started gas supplies to Azerbaijan on November 15 under the new sale and purchase agreement. The document was signed between Gazprom Export LLC and Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR. The supplies will last until the end of March 2023. It is planned to supply a total of 1 billion cubic meters of gas.