President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on March 14, 2023.
Berlin – The Czech Republic is one of the European countries that are interested in natural gas supplies from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced this today at a press conference in Berlin after a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. According to him, Hungary and Croatia also want gas from this country.
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“We are increasing our gas exports to Europe. While we exported only eight billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe in 2021, this year it will be about 12 billion. This means half of our entire export,” Aliyev said. “I must also emphasize that our export potential is not limited to Europe. Turkey and Georgia are big markets for us,” he said.
“We have received orders from other countries as well. Among these countries is the Czech Republic, Czech Republic,” Alijev said. “Also Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. And still other countries want gas from Azerbaijan,” he said.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala already mentioned last summer that, in preparation for winter, the government is negotiating with gas suppliers from Azerbaijan or Qatar, among others.
In addition to Turkey and Georgia, Azerbaijan already supplies natural gas to Greece, Bulgaria, Italy and, starting this year, Romania. “Our intention is to deliver the first gas to Hungary, we are working on it. We are also negotiating with the government of Albania,” Aliyev said today.
The European Union is trying to cope with a significant reduction in gas supplies from Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. and therefore sees Azerbaijan as an energy partner. Last year, the EU signed a memorandum with this Caucasian country on increasing gas supplies. Aliyev also reminded that. “Based on this memorandum, we will export 20 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe annually by 2027. That is our goal,” said the president.
At the press conference, Scholz praised Azerbaijan's energy cooperation with the European Union as impressive. At the same time, he said that in addition to gas supplies, the possibility of importing green energy from Azerbaijan to Europe is also opening up in the future.
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