Azerbaijan will increase gas deliveries to Europe by 17%! Will the current infrastucture hold up?

By the year 2026, Azerbaijan intends to increase its annual volume of gas exports to Europe by 17% compared to 2023, reaching 14 billion cubic meters, said the Deputy Vice President of SOCAR, Vitaly Beglyarbekov, in an interview with the European edition of “Montel News”.

According to him, within two years, Azerbaijan aims to annually export approximately 14 billion cubic meters of gas to countries in Southeastern Europe, compared to 12 billion cubic meters last year. “Currently, we are expanding the capacities of natural gas production and export, and the results of these works should be ready by 2026, when we will further increase our deliveries to European consumers,” stated Beglyarbekov.

The increase in deliveries will be due to a combination of production growth and expansion of the capacity of the three transit pipelines comprising the Southern Gas Corridor, he said.

Beglyarbekov specified that further growth in Azeri gas deliveries to Europe up to 20 billion cubic meters per year will largely depend on the region’s needs and the willingness of the European side to invest in new infrastructure.

“For example, we intend to supply an additional 5 billion cubic meters through the solidarity ring to the countries in the Balkans,” he said. According to him, similar volumes can be additionally supplied through the Southern Gas Corridor to Italy, Greece, and their neighbors.

“This is something we can produce and deliver. I can’t say everything will happen at the same time or in the same year—it all depends on when the infrastructure will be ready and when our upstream will be ready,” he said.

The official emphasized that “certain projects” do not depend on SOCAR but on European customers.

“We are interested in increasing deliveries, but it is extremely important to have infrastructure,” he said, adding that Europe will remain Azerbaijan’s main market for many years to come.

Azerbaijan began exporting gas to Europe on December 31, 2020. According to the agreement between Azerbaijan and the EU, Azeri gas deliveries should reach at least 20 billion cubic meters per year by 2027. By the end of 2023, Azeri gas exports to Europe reached 11.8 billion cubic meters.