Azerbaijan's Energy Minister: 'Gas supplies to Europe are expected to exceed 10 bcm by the end of the year.'

The Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan Parviz Shahbazov took part at the Ministerial round table on "Southeastern Energy Transition: Regional Cooperation for Energy Security, Diversification and Green Transition" held in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Addressing the opening ceremony, the Minister drew attention to the energy dialogue with the Union after the meeting between the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the EU Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson in February this year. It was noted that the main directions of our energy dialogue are decarbonization of the energy sector, energy transition, energy efficiency, expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor for additional gas, including hydrogen export to Europe, production and export of other types of "green energy".

In his speech, the Minister pointed to the importance of achieving sustainable, affordable and safe energy supply and said that the solution to this problem is unrelated to giving preference in our energy policies either to energy security, diversification or green transition, but with keeping balance among all of them It was noted thats the cleanest source of hydrocarbon, natural gas and renewable energy sources in the transition process will act not as reverse poles, but as an equal position energy resources that provide further diversification of energy supplies.

It was noted that the Southern Gas Corridor reaffirmed their strategic importance by providing European consumers with uninterrupted and affordable natural gas during the energy crisis. Azerbaijan is determined to continue its role as a reliable energy supplier for the region and Europe: "So far, TAP has supplied 11.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Europe. Out of the 3.5 bcm exported from Azerbaijan to Europe in the first four months of 2022, 3.1 bcm supplied to Italy, 0.3 bcm to Greece, and 0.1 bcm to Bulgaria. If current pace of daily exports sustains, our gas exports to Europe will exceed 10 bcm by the end of 2022."

In addition, the information about the plans and projects implemented in connection with decarbonization and transition to "green energy"was also provided. In addition to the huge natural gas reserves, it was also brought to the attention that our renewable energy potential has created great opportunities for the further development of the existing progressive energy dialogue with the European Union, a new project on the production of "green energy" using about 7 GW of the Caspian wind potential and the export of part of it to Europe via a submarine power cable in the Black Sea via Georgia and Romania has been considered.

The event continued with 4 panel sessions on gas supply security, regional electricity market, green transition and future vision.