Azerbaijan ready to supply more gas to Europe in case of emergency

Azerbaijan is ready to supply Europe with some emergency gas, said Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the UK, TurkicWorld reports.

“If there is an urgent need as we saw in Turkey, some volumes of course would be made available,” Suleymanov said in an interview in London.

Azerbaijan can produce more gas and expand its Southern Gas Corridor. It can also channel flows from Turkmenistan as the two nations are set to develop Dostlug field in the Caspian Sea, the ambassador said.

“We don’t look at energy security and potential expansion and increase in volumes through a short term crisis, you cannot succeed with short-term mandates. It’s long-term planning, it is a process, it’s not like someone shows up and says ‘Give me more gas’,” he added.

The Southern Gas Corridor, which is comprised of Shah Deniz 2, the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion, the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) became fully operational on December 31, 2020.

A total of 8.1 billion standard cubic meters of gas was transported via TAP from December 31, 2020 to December 31, 2021. TAP supplied 6.8 billion cubic meters to Italy and 1.2 billion cubic meters to Greece and Bulgaria.