BAKU
Azerbaijan’s natural gas export rose by 18.2 percent year-on-year to 25.4 billion cubic metres (bcm) in the first nine months of this year, official data showed, as the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) continues to help the country increase its share in the market until now dominated by Russia.
The resource-rich country mainly exports gas from its giant Shah Deniz offshore field. Gas export from Shah Deniz rose by 45.5 percent to 12.7 bcm in January-September.
The BP-led consortium which develops the Shah Deniz project in Azerbaijan has been pumping gas from the offshore field’s first phase since 2006, delivering more than 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) a year of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey through the South Caucasus Pipeline.
The second phase started output in 2018, adding 16 bcm of gas production capacity at its peak to bring total capacity to 26 bcm.
Azerbaijan started supplying commercial natural gas to Europe from the second stage of the Shah Deniz project via its $40-billion Southern Gas Corridor in December 2020, when the corridor’s last part, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), became operational. The project hopes to reduce Europe’s dependence on natural gas supplies from Russia, which currently controls 34 percent of the continent’s gas market.
The 878 km TAP pipeline connects to the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border in Kipoi, crossing Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before reaching Italy’s southern coast.
Gas to Europe was delivered through the TAP. Exports to Turkey were made through the TANAP and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipelines.
The country’s revenues from gas exports rose by 56 percent year-on-year to $2.95 billion, data released by the State Customs Committee showed.
Exports to Turkey amounted to 7.833 bcm in the first nine months of 2021 for $1.2 billion, exports to Georgia totalled 2.262 bcm for $282 million, to Europe – 4.663 bcm for $1.5 billion.
Exports to Italy amounted to 3.995 bcm for $1.268 billion, to Greece – 502 million cubic metres for $164 million, Bulgaria – 166 million cubic metres for $26 million.
Azerbaijan’s goal is to eventually supply the European market with 10 bcm of gas a year, including 8 bcm to Italy and a combined 2 bcm to Greece and Bulgaria. This year, the country plans to export 5 bcm to Europe and over 12 bcm to Turkey.