Azerbaijan says will raise gas exports to Europe to 13 bcm in 2024
BAKU, July 19 (Reuters) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said the country will raise natural gas exports to Europe this year to 13 billion cubic metres (bcm) as it moves towards a target to help the European Union replace Russian energy imports.
The EU last year received 11.8 bcm of Azeri gas after it signed a deal following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to double imports of Azeri gas to at least 20 bcm a year by 2027.
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In an interview last month, Azerbaijan said the infrastructure and financing was not in place to allow the expansion, but late on Thursday Aliyev said the country could reach the target.
"The strategic partnership with the EU, which we defined in Baku in July 2022 in the energy sector, provides for doubling our gas supplies to Europe by the end of 2027 to 20 bcm. We are moving towards this goal," Aliyev told the European Political Union summit in Oxford, England.
The quest to secure energy from sources other than Russia gained urgency following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, a major gas transit country, in February 2022.
Gas supplies from Azerbaijan have been also in spotlight as a five-year deal on Russian gas transit to Europe between Moscow and Kyiv, expires after Dec. 31 2024.
Ukraine has said it would not extend the contract that transmits close to 15 bcm per year of Russian gas to Europe, compared 150 billion bcm of piped gas that flowed in 2022.
Aliyev added that Azerbaijan needed to speed up negotiations on gas supplies with new partners, such as Slovenia and Slovakia, as well as increasing gas supplies to existing markets.
(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Barbara Lewis)