Borrell: EU increases gas purchases from Azerbaijan, Norway, Algeria

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell has said that the EU has made progress in buying more pipeline gas from Norway, Algeria, and Azerbaijan, Azernews reports.

He noted that the EU has already managed to cope with an overall reduction in the share of Russian gas imports from 40 percent at the beginning of the year to around 20 percent today, principally by buying more LNG, whose share of gas usage has doubled from 19 percent to 37 percent.

"In July, I co-chaired the EU-Azerbaijan Cooperation Council where we welcomed the recent signature [signing] of a Memorandum of understanding on a Strategic Partnership on Energy. Longer-term, we can expect more progress with this diversification drive. But the hard truth is that for this winter, we are approaching the limits of what extra gas we can buy from non-Russian sources. So, the bulk will have to come from energy savings, i.e. demand reduction," he said.

On July 18, Azerbaijan and the European Commission signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic cooperation in the energy sector. The document was signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The EU and Azerbaijan are in active dialogue on increasing gas supplies amid the energy crisis. The EU-Azerbaijan energy cooperation has reached a new level and is still ongoing within the framework of the Southern Gas Corridor. The EU places a high value on energy supply diversification, and the Southern Gas Corridor is particularly important in this regard.

To recall, with the completion of the TAP (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline) construction on December 31, 2020, Azerbaijan began commercial gas supplies to Europe via the Southern Gas Corridor. The SGCis an initiative of the European Commission for a natural gas supply route from the Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe. The route from Azerbaijan to Europe consists of the South Caucasus Pipeline, TANAP, and TAP.

Last year, TAP transported 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe. By late 2022, Azerbaijan plans to increase gas supplies to Europe to 9.1 billion cubic meters, and in 2023, the volume of gas supplies is expected to reach 11 billion cubic meters.