2024-07-28 13:26:14
Azerbaijan always strictly fulfills its obligations. Thanks to its own efforts and bilateral negotiations, it has expanded its gas exports to Europe and continues to expand. But there is little evidence of special efforts on the part of European partners to implement the agreement signed in July 2022.
The head of the Azerbaijan Oil Research Center (AORC) Ilham Shaban said this in an interview with Day.Az.
At the Media Forum in Shusha, the President of Azerbaijan made it clear for the first time that without investment from European financial institutions, the volume of supplies to Europe will not reach 20 billion cubic meters, Shaban noted. At the same time, he emphasized, Baku will not violate its obligations and will increase exports to the EU to the volumes defined by the agreement signed in 2022.
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“Azerbaijan has committed to double its supplies to Europe compared to 2021, when exports were just over 8 billion cubic meters. That is, Europeans will receive 16 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas. Although European officials are talking about 20 billion. In 2026, Azerbaijan plans to increase exports to Europe to 14 billion cubic meters, and in 2027 – to 16 billion. By the end of 2024, it is expected that 13 billion cubic meters will be exported to European partners. That is, in three years, exports will increase by 3 billion cubic meters of gas. Can we do this? Of course, we can. As President Ilham Aliyev said, natural gas production from deep-lying formations of the Ayeri-Chirag-Guneshli block will begin in 2025. In addition, production volumes from Shah Deniz are growing. Data from the Ministry of Energy show that growth is expected this year as well. Based on this data, “I would like to say that Azerbaijan is strictly fulfilling its obligations. It has committed to double the volume of exports to European markets and is moving towards fulfilling this obligation,” said Ilham Shaban.
As for the hypocrisy of Western partners, which the President spoke about in Shusha, here, according to our interlocutor, everything is clear. The European Parliament makes the relevant decisions, and the European Commission implements them. Europe is going to completely abandon the production of cars with internal combustion engines by 2035, begin to significantly reduce the consumption of oil, gas and coal from 2040, and completely stop using fossil fuels from 2050. That is, if Azerbaijan decides to start the second phase of the Absheron field development at the end of this year, the project, as practice shows, will take at least five years to implement. Production will begin only by 2030. Another year and a half to two years will be needed to reach the design capacity. And from 2040, Europe is going to reduce gas imports. The picture, according to the Azerbaijani expert, is clear.
“Azerbaijan approaches such issues not from a political, but from an economic point of view. Azerbaijan is one of those countries that know how to separate politics from economics and never let down their partners and companies involved in projects. The invested funds must pay off and bring dividends to the owners, including Azerbaijan. All these years we have been moving forward steadily, but now the situation has changed. Europe has abruptly stopped energy cooperation with Russia and expects to meet its needs at the expense of Azerbaijan, while stopping financing. It turns out that our country must invest billions of dollars in bringing these projects to fruition, knowing that they will not pay off, because Europe has its own views on the future of oil and gas? The President said it right – we are not crazy,” concluded Ilham Shaban.
Leila Tariverdieva