Ukraine and the EU have asked Azerbaijan to supply natural gas to Europe via Ukraine after the expiration of the current contract with Russia at the end of the year, Babel informs.
This was stated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
According to Aliyev, negotiations with Ukraine, the EU, and Russia are still ongoing, but all parties are interested in continuing cooperation.
Bloomberg reports that earlier this month, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is negotiating to supply natural gas to Europe from Azerbaijan. Ukraine wants to maintain its role as a transit country, but no longer wants to be a transit country for gas supplies to the EU from Russia.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union tried to cut off Russian gas, but some European countries continue to receive it through a pipeline that runs through Ukraine.
At the same time, Aliyev warned that if Russian gas supplies through Ukraine are cut off, states such as Austria and Slovakia could face serious difficulties, as they would have to spend much more money to buy gas from other countries. In addition, he said, Azerbaijan will try to “be careful” because in the past the country has been falsely accused of reselling Russian gas.
Aliyev also said that gas production in his country would increase due to new and existing fields in the Caspian Sea.
In 2022, Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Commission, which provides for a doubling of gas exports to Europe to 20 billion cubic meters by 2027. According to Aliyev, the country is moving toward this goal. This year, exports to European countries will increase to almost 13 billion cubic meters from 11.8 billion in 2023 and 8 billion in 2021.
