Azerbaijan can export gas through Ukraine to the European Union (EU) after the agreement with Russia ends - Bloomberg reported.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that Ukraine and the EU have approached Azerbaijan to offer to supply gas to Europe through Ukraine after the existing contract with Russia expires at the end of this year.
According to President Aliyev, negotiations continue with the Ukrainian authorities and the EU as well as with Russia, and all parties seem to be interested in continuing gas supplies .
“We will help if we can. I think this agreement can be extended," Mr. Aliyev said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this month that Kiev is negotiating to transport natural gas from Azerbaijan to the EU.
Ukraine strives to find ways to maintain its role as a transit country and help ensure the energy security of its western neighbors.
Mr. Zelensky told Bloomberg in an interview that an agreement to replace Russian gas with Azerbaijani gas is one of the proposals under discussion.
The EU has tried to exclude Russian gas since the Ukraine conflict, but some European countries continue to receive it through pipelines passing through Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine signed a five-year gas transit agreement, from 2019 to 2024. The agreement will expire at the end of this year, and as fighting continues, many market observers predict Russian gas flows will stop.
President Aliyev pointed out that European countries such as Austria and Slovakia will be in "serious trouble" if Russia's gas supply through Ukraine stops because they will have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more to buy gas from there. other.
He also added that Azerbaijan is trying to be cautious because it has been falsely accused of re-exporting Russian gas in the past.
President Aliyev said Azerbaijan's gas production is expected to increase from new and existing projects in the Caspian Sea.
In 2022, Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Commission to double gas exports to Europe to 20 billion cubic meters per year by 2027.
Azerbaijan is moving towards this goal. Gas exports to Europe will increase to nearly 13 billion cubic meters this year from 11.8 billion cubic meters in 2023 and 8 billion cubic meters in 2021.
Mr. Aliyev pointed out that gas will be transported through the "Southern Gas Corridor" connecting Azerbaijan with Europe through Georgia and Turkey.
Before the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, each year, nearly 150 billion cubic meters of Russian gas passed through gas pipelines in Ukraine.
Ukraine and the EU have downplayed the possibility of extending or reaching a new agreement on gas transit as diplomatic relations with Russia deteriorate due to conflict.
