BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 26. Azerbaijan’s Upstream needs more investments to double gas supplies to Europe, former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza told Trend.
He pointed out that ten countries have asked for more gas from Azerbaijan.
"Last July the European Union signed a strategic energy partnership agreement, an important part of which is to double the supplies of Azerbaijan’s natural gas to Europe by 2027. To accomplish that a few things need to happen. One is that there needs to be more investment in Azerbaijan’s Upstream. There is deep gas from Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli, also Absheron and other fields, where Azerbaijan hopes to attract investments to reach that doubling of exports to EU from 10 billion cubic meters to 20 billion cubic meters," said Bryza.
The former ambassador noted that in addition to that Azerbaijan is increasing dramatically its renewable energy production and that will free up more natural gas that won’t be burned in Azerbaijan’s power plants and can instead be exported to Europe.
"A certain amount of gas might be available from Turkmenistan if finally, Turkmenistan cooperates with Azerbaijan both to develop the Dostlug field in the Caspian Sea and also to export significant amount of Turkmenistan gas that is produced in the field called Block 1 in the Caspian Sea that is operated by Petronas," he added.
Azerbaijan’s gas supplies to Europe began on December 31, 2020 via the Southern Gas Corridor. In 2023 Azerbaijan is expected to export at least 11.6 billion cubic meters to Europe. Total export of natural gas from Azerbaijan this year will be almost 24 billion cubic meters.
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