BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 19. Bulgaria imported 77.2 million cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan in May 2023, as compared to 74.8 million cubic meters in April, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, told Trend.
As such, the country boosted natural gas imports from Azerbaijan by 3.2 percent month-on-month.
Overall, Azerbaijan exported 381.4 million cubic meters to Bulgaria in the first five months of this year.
The value of exports stood at 145.5 million euros from January through May 2023. It was 27.1 million euros in May, compared to 29.9 million euros in April, showing a 9.3 percent decrease.
Bulgaria started importing gas from Azerbaijan via the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) which was put into operation on October 1, 2022. The contracted volume of gas supplies via this interconnector is 1 billion cubic meters per year. The total capacity of IGB is 3 billion cubic meters, expandable to 5 billion cubic meters per year.
Azerbaijan exports gas to Europe via the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, the final leg of the Southern Gas Corridor. The initial capacity of TAP is 10 billion cubic meters expandable to 20 billion cubic meters per year.
Azerbaijan’s energy ministry estimates that the country exported 4.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe from January through May 2023. Gas exports as a whole increased by 9.6 percent year-on-year.
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