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Baku has positioned itself as an important partner of the EU in its search for alternative sources to Russia
BAKU, March 10. (From the special envoy of Europa Press, Borja Aranda) –
The Government of Azerbaijan has stressed this Friday that it is working “very intensively” with its European partners to reinforce the shipment of energy to the continent, amid the efforts of these countries to break their dependence on Russian gas after the outbreak in February 2022 of the war in Ukraine, triggered by the invasion order given by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Azeri Energy Minister, Parviz Shahbazov, has outlined the increase in gas exports to Europe over the past year and has detailed that in 2022 “there was a 40 percent growth in gas supply” to the European continent. “This year we are going to further increase our natural gas exports,” he assured.
Thus, it has confirmed in the framework of the second day of the X Global Forum in Baku, organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, that the strategic agreement signed with the European Union (EU) will allow these exports to be “expanded” by 2027, something that Baku “has already begun to do.”
The agreement was signed in July 2022 between the Government of Azerbaijan and the European Commission, after which the president of the organization, Ursula von der Leyen, stressed that the memorandum of understanding “opens a new chapter in energy cooperation” with this country. of the South Caucasus, which he described as “a key partner” in the bloc’s efforts to “move away from Russian fossil fuels.”
Thus, Von der Leyen referred to the efforts undertaken over the last year by the EU to seek alternative energy suppliers to reduce Moscow’s influence over the bloc countries and cut the income that Russia obtains from these exports, added to the battery of sanctions imposed against the authorities following the invasion of Ukraine.
In this sense, Shahbazov has confirmed that Baku “is going to continue the dialogue with partners in Europe” and has indicated that there are currently consultations with fourteen countries. “With some we have signed preliminary documents, which are memorandums of understanding that define our future cooperation. With others we continue to talk,” he said.
The Azeri Minister of Energy has also asserted that Baku “is working intensively on the expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor”, an initiative of the European Commission for a natural gas supply route from the Caspian Sea that goes from Azerbaijan to Italy through of the connection of various gas pipelines.
The project, proposed in 2008, involves covering a route that passes through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Albania and Italy through the connection of the South Caucasus Gas Pipeline, the Trans Anatolian Gas Pipeline and the Trans Adriatic Gas Pipeline, with the main source of supply in the Shah Deniz gas field, located in the Caspian Sea.
The Southern Gas Corridor states on its website that the objective is to “increase and diversify the supply of energy to Europe through gas resources from the Caspian Sea delivered to markets in Europe”. The total construction of the corridor through its different gas pipelines is more than 3,200 kilometers.
IMPULSE TO RENEWABLES
Shahbazov recalled that “the first binding text” was reached in January for the expansion of the Transadriatic Gas Pipeline and praised that this “automatically implies the improvement of the Southern Gas Corridor”, while underlining the importance of the agreement signed in December 2022 between Azerbaijan, Hungary, Georgia and Romania to build a submarine cable through the Black Sea.
“This quadrilateral project is, if I may, the project of the 21st century”, explained the Azeri minister, who has defended that the work “is going to give the enormous renewable energy resources of the Caspian Sea in the form of renewable electricity or gas renewable energy to the European continent, connecting the Caspian Sea with the EU”.
Von der Leyen herself stated after signing the agreement in Bucharest that it “will help bring the EU closer to its partners in the South Caucasus region and will help both regions to achieve a transition to clean energy”, while also it reiterated that the goal was to “turn its back on Russian fossil fuels and diversify into reliable energy partners.”
The cable, which will be some 1,100 kilometers long and could be the longest in the world, will facilitate the delivery of energy supplies from Azerbaijan to the mainland, confirming the centrality of Baku in these EU plans to search for new sources. and suppliers in full distance from Moscow.
In this sense, Shahbazov has defended that the objective is to use “safe energy sources not only for Azerbaijan, but also for the countries of the region and even beyond”, before showing his desire that all the “projects on the agenda” be “materialized together with the partners”.
“Azerbaijan has always tried to build or collaborate in the construction of these energy corridors in such a way that absolutely acceptable and favorable conditions are created for the materialization of these projects,” he argued.
“These energy corridors not only represent an opportunity to distribute our energy resources to different regions and partners and that they will benefit from it, but at the same time it gives the possibility of facilitating energy security”, said Shahbazov, who has stressed that this “It will also contribute to decarbonization and the energy transition.”
AN “EFFICIENT” WORK
For his part, the Azeri Minister of Transport, Rashad Nabiyev, who has also participated in a panel focused on energy and transport corridors in the Eurasian area, has stated that “it is not a secret that Azerbaijan’s location represents a natural bridge between East and West, between North and South”, although he has qualified that “it is not about geography, but visionary leadership over the last 20 years”, referring to the tenure of Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, who came to power in 2003 .
Thus, he has pointed out that this is “especially true” in the “improvement of infrastructures”, which in recent years have seen “an expansion of capacities that exceeded local demand”. “It’s no coincidence that today, when this demand (from European countries) came, we were quite prepared.”
“We have been very efficient working with our partners in the East and the West,” stressed Nabiyev, who noted that over the past year the period for transporting materials from the border between Kazakhstan and China has been reduced and the Georgian port of Batumi has gone “from 45 to 50 days to 15 to 20 days”.
“We believe that cooperation between regional countries, including Armenia – with which Azerbaijan is in the process of talks to try to reach a final peace agreement to settle their dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh – could benefit us not only us, but to all the European partners”, he explained.
Nabiyev has opted for a formula to “convince European partners not to make the mistakes of the past”, in apparent reference to these efforts by Azerbaijan to play a central role in European diversification efforts to end Russia’s energy dependence .
