FSUOGM: Azerbaijan targets further growth in gas exports in 2023

Azerbaijan will boost natural gas exports to 24.5bn cubic metres in 2023, from 22.6 bcm last year, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev announced at a ministerial meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council on February 3.

Imports also grew in 2022, from 19 bcm in 2021, the Azeri president said. He also reaffirmed Azerbaijan’s commitment to doubling gas flow to Europe by 2027, in line with an agreement with the European Commission. Europe received 11.4 bcm of gas from Azerbaijan last year, while the rest of the country’s exports were delivered to Georgia and Turkey.

The EU has reached out to Azerbaijan and other pipeline gas suppliers to help replace lost gas supply from Russia. Gazprom’s pipeline gas exports to the bloc are currently only around a tenth of the level they were before Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine a year ago.

The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) started delivering gas to the EU in 2020, helping Southeast Europe reduce its reliance on Russian supply. Volumes are currently sold to Greece, Bulgaria and Italy, but Azerbaijan is looking to extend deliveries to other markets in the region over the coming years, although doing so will require the development of new pipelines.

Aliyev claimed that Azerbaijan’s natural gas reserves were sufficient to cover domestic needs and export volumes for at least another 100 years, adding that new fields would be brought into production this year. Deliveries to Romania will start very soon, he said.

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