Page 4 - FSUOGM Week 23 2022

FSUOGM COMMENTARY FSUOGM

Azerbaijan eyes extra gas market

share in Europe

Azerbaijan is eager to expand its gas market share in Europe, but how much

supply can it provide and how quickly?

AZERBAIJAN AZERBAIJAN is prepared to ship gas to new institutions and related investments,” Gary
customers to help the continent wean itself off Jones, BP president of Azerbaijan, Georgia and
Russian supplies, President Ilham Aliyev said Turkey, said at the event in Baku.
WHAT: on June 1, noting that negotiations were already Professor Brenda Shaffer, an expert on
Azerbaijan is eager to underway with potential customers. Caspian energy and European energy policy,
see the SGC system Prospects for a growth in Azeri gas supply to described SGC as scalable, explaining that it
expanded. Europe hinge on an expansion of the Southern could be expanded at a low cost to close to twice
Gas Corridor (SGC), the network of pipelines its current capacity.
WHY: that carry gas produced in the Azeri Caspian Sea “The tightness of the European natural gas
Prospects for the as far as Italy. SGC’s final section, the Trans-Adri- market is not a temporary development but will
expansion have improved atic Pipeline, is currently flowing at close to its last for several years and create a stable demand
since the EU declared 10bn cubic metre per year capacity, with this gas source for additional gas supplies,” Shaffer said.
its ambition to phase out delivered to Italy, Greece and Bulgaria. But BP,
Russian gas. Azerbaijan’s SOCAR and other SGC sharehold- Gas from where, and how quickly?
ers have proposed expanding the system’s capac- While European demand may justify an expan-
WHAT NEXT: ity, potentially by a further 10 bcm per year, to sion at SGC, another question is how much extra
It will take some years for provide supply to additional European markets. gas supply Azerbaijan can provide to fill the
extra supply to become “Taking into account that there are now new pipeline, and how quickly.
available, however, and challenges and new demands, of course, we are At the very least, Azerbaijan would need to
other import projects already in negotiations with potential custom- move ahead on the 5-6 bcm per year second
in the meantime could ers,” Aliyev said. However, Azeri officials at Baku stage of the TotalEnergies-operated Absheron
crowd out the expansion. Energy Week on June 1-4 said that expanding field. Absheron’s first 1.5 bcm per year stage is on
the country’s exports would require new invest- track to start up later this year, but this supply has
ment and contracts, S&P Global reported. been ring-fenced for the domestic market, where
“The role of the Southern Gas Corridor will demand is rising quickly. But TotalEnergies and
grow, exports will be increased, and to achieve SOCAR are yet to take a final investment deci-
these goals, work is underway to attract financial sion (FID) on this second phase, and even if one

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 23 08•June•2022