BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 15. Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said during a meeting with Albanian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Energy Belinda Balluku on June 10 that, from 2026 annual gas supplies to Albania are expected to be about 200 million cubic meters per year through the expanding Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Trend reports.
These 200 million cubic meters per year are intended for a new heating plant being built in Albania near TAP, an informed source told Trend.
During the first meeting of the intergovernmental commission on cooperation between Azerbaijan and Albania, it was reported that earlier, during the construction of TAP through the territory of Albania in the direction of Italy (the final point of TAP), investments in Albania were made in the amount of 1.5 billion euros, transit taxes will amount to 285 million euros for 25 years (the term of the contracts on gas transit with "Shah Deniz"), and social obligations - 14 million euros. According to the press release of the Ministry of Energy, the two ministers discussed Baku SOCAR's assistance in the gasification of the Albanian town of Korça as well as the study of prospects for the use of Albanian gas storage in the town of Dume.
TotalEnergies, SOCAR, and ADNOC intend to approve FEED (Front End Engineering Design), the basic project for full-scale development of the Caspian gas condensate field Absheron this year, reports Trend concerning TotalEnergies, which quotes Jason Fish, director for development and joint ventures of this French company, who visited Baku. It is expected that at the stage of full development of the field, additional production (i.e., production from the second phase of Absheron development) at the peak will amount to 110,000 barrels per day (of which 35,000 barrels per day - condensate).
The gas condensate project "Shah Deniz" in late 2025 - early 2026 may be the start of the so-called Phase 3 of the development of this field, two sources in the oil and gas industry of Azerbaijan exclusively told Trend. According to them, Shah Deniz is currently at the peak of production—26–27 bcm of gas per year-but such a peak will be kept as a plateau for less than 10 years. This means that additional gas resources will be needed. For this purpose, Phase 3 of Shah Deniz will be put into operation.
Azerbaijan, represented by SOCAR Trading, is interested in trying to lease a certain volume of capacity in one of the underground gas storages (UGS) of Ukraine, located closer to the border with the EU, this summer by participating in the auction (July 1) for the use of cross-border infrastructure with the EU. This was exclusively reported to Trend by an informed source.
This week, the report of the Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Board (EPDK) for 2023 was published, which revealed that Azerbaijan was among the top 3 gas suppliers to Türkiye last year, selling 10.257 bcm (17.8 percent more than 2022), or 20.32 percent of the total volume of gas received by Türkiye from all suppliers. Russia was the leader in gas supplies to Türkiye last year, accounting for 42.27 percent of Türkiye's total gas purchases.
However, according to the EPDK report, the STAR refinery near Izmir, Türkiye, controlled by SOCAR Turkiye Enerji A.S. (STEAS - a subsidiary of SOCAR), imported 11.366 million tons of crude oil in 2023, up 2.95 percent from 2022. Meanwhile, the STAR refinery accounted for 36.2 percent of all oil imported by Türkiye in 2023.
Azerbaijan's Energy Ministry shared information this week that
Azerbaijan produced 12 million tons of oil (including condensate)
from January through May 2024, 0.7 million tons less than the same
period in 2023.
Of this volume, 2.7 million tons of oil were sent to the Baku oil
refinery (Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery) for processing from January
through May 2024, which is 0.2 million tons more than in the same
period of 2023.
The Energy Ministry announced that Azerbaijan exported 9.9 million tons of oil (including condensate) from January through May 2024, compared to 10.6 million tons in the same period in 2023.
Azerbaijan's average daily oil production (including condensate) in May 2024 amounted to 76,775 tons, the data from the Energy Ministry indicates. Of the said volume, 62,118 tons per day were crude oil, while 14,657 tons - condensate.
The Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan reported that a total of 637.9 million tons of liquid hydrocarbons (oil and condensate) have been extracted from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields and Shah Deniz field, i.e., from the key fields of Azerbaijan as of June 1, 2024. At the same time, for the incomplete 27 years of production at ACG, 591.6 million tons of oil have been extracted from this block. Condensate from "Shah Deniz" has been extracted since December 2006, and up to now, a total of 46.3 million tons of condensate have been extracted from this Caspian field.
This ministry also reported that Azerbaijan produced 20.9 billion cubic meters of natural gas in five months of 2024, which is 0.7 bcm more than from January through May 2023.
Azerbaijan exported 10.6 bcm of gas in five months of 2024, which is 3.4 percent more than the same period last year. At the same time, 5.3 bcm of gas was exported to Europe in the mentioned period, compared to 4.8 bcm in the same period in 2023.
Baku hosted the fifth meeting of the Azerbaijan-Greece Intergovernmental Commission on June 13, during which it was reported that Azerbaijani gas supplies to Greece via the Southern Gas Corridor for 3.5 years of its operation amounted to 10 percent of the total volume of gas transported to Europe from Azerbaijan during this period. The contribution of Azerbaijani gas to the diversification of supplies and decarbonization of Europe through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and the Greece-Bulgaria Interconnector (IGB) was noted.
Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov stated on June 13 that more than 3.6 bcm, or 10 percent of the 36.8 bcm of gas delivered to Europe during the 3.5 years of the SGC's operation, went to Greece. At the same time, last year, about 18 percent of Greece's gas demand was met by Azerbaijani gas. And in 2024, Greece may receive 1.2 bcm of Azerbaijani gas.
Director for Energy Strategy and International Cooperation of the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, Petr Binhak, told Trend in an interview that the Czech Republic sees the potential for increasing the supply of Azerbaijani oil and gas to the Central-Eastern Europe (CEE) region. According to him, the common goal of the EU and, in particular, of the Czech Republic is a gradual phase-out of Russian oil and gas supplies, and Azerbaijan's role is important in this process.
The Czech Republic is among the top 5 buyers of Azerbaijan's oil. This week, the State Customs Committee (SCC), whose information is based on customs declarations, reported that Azerbaijan exported 9.87 million tons of oil and condensate from January through May 2024, which is 16 percent less than in the same period of 2023.
In turn, the State Statistics Committee reported that from January through May 2024, 15.97 million tons of oil were transported through trunk oil pipelines passing through the territory of Azerbaijan, and this figure is 1.8 percent less than the volume of oil pumping from January through May 2023.
Of this volume, 75.1 percent of the oil was transported through the strategic Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, i.e., almost 12 million tons. Of this volume, 9.749 million tons of Azerbaijan's oil were transported through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, which is 7 percent less than in the same period of 2023. At the same time, from January through May 2024, the total volume of oil transported through BTC by Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan exceeded 2.237 million tons (14.8 percent more than in the same period of 2023).
The output of urea (nitrogen fertilizers) at the SOCAR Carbamide plant in Sumgayit from January through May 2024 was 249,100 tons, which is 64.4 percent more than the same period in 2023.
SSC also announced that SOCAR Methanol LLC of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) produced 204,400 tons of methanol (methyl alcohol) from January through May 2024, which is 20 percent more than the figure for the same period in 2023.
Meanwhile, the State Customs Service reported that Azerbaijan exported 241,109 tons of oil products from January through May 2024, compared to 479,451 tons in the same period in 2023. Such a large decrease is not explained.
Furthermore, by the end of June 2024, the Baku Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery will start producing automobile gasoline to the Euro-5 environmental standard, which is an important step towards improving fuel quality. The refinery has already started producing diesel fuel to Euro-5 standard in May 2023. This transition to higher environmental standards will lead to a significant reduction in harmful emissions.
This week, the Energy Ministry reported that Azerbaijan produced
11.231 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from January through
May 2024, down 5.5 percent from the same period in 2023. At the
same time, thermal power plants (TPPs) produced 9.686 billion kWh
of electricity. RES accounted for 714.4 million kWh.
Azerbaijan exported 426.8 million kWh of electricity from January
through May and imported 80.9 million kWh.
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