While awaiting the implementation of its vast plan to decarbonize its economy, the European Union is counting more than ever on gas from Azerbaijan.
In their quest to diversify their gas imports since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Europeans have turned to Azerbaijan, gas and oil power.
On Friday, representatives of 23 countries, including Italy, Greece, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria, met within the council of Southern Gas Corridor to discuss the capacity for expansion of these supplies.
Azerbaijan has already started supplying natural gas to two additional countries, Hungary and Serbia, as Baku seeks to fulfill its commitment to the European Union of double its gas exports to Europe to increase them to 20 billion cubic meters per year by 2027.
11 billion cubic meters
Present at the meeting, European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said that “gas flows to Europe from the Southern Gas Corridor are 46% higher than in 2021. In 2023, the EU received almost 11 billion cubic meters stable and secure gas supply from Azerbaijan.
She added that Azerbaijan was becoming a pan-European supplier and that the EU was working with Azerbaijan to “further increase these volumes together”.
And Kadri Simson clarified: “ We hope that the Azerbaijani gas pipeline will play an important role in the European energy system during our energy transition. Faced with increasing Russian violence and the continuation of an unjustified war on our doorstep, it is increasingly clear that, for Europe, there will be no return to the status quo in its energy relations with Russia.»
For his part, the President of Azerbaijan justified his country’s approach.
“We are doing this not because we lack traditional resources, but because we want to contribute using financing, using the revenue we get from oil and gas sales to invest in renewable energies and create, a common understanding,” said Ilham Aliyev.
To note that Azerbaijan will be the next host of the UN climate conference. COP29 will indeed be held in Baku from November 11 to 22.
An agreement contested by MEPs
This gas agreement between the EU and Azerbaijan made the European Parliament cringe, especially after Azerbaijan’s offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh which led, last fall, to the exodus of more than 100 000 Armenians from this historic enclave. The European Parliament thus adopted in October, by a large majority, a text calling for the “suspension” of this gas agreement and called for “targeted sanctions” against the Azerbaijani state.