Azerbaijan does not compete with Russia in gas deliveries to EU, says Azerbaijan Minister of Energy

Azerbaijan does not compete with Russia in gas deliveries to Europe, said Azerbaijani Energy Minister Natig Aliyev in his interview to www.euractiv.com web site.

“Azerbaijan does not compete with Russia, which plans to export 63 billion cub.m. of gas a year to South Eastern Europe via South Stream or Turkish Stream. The current plans are that Azerbaijan will deliver 10 billion cub.m. of gas a year to the EU member-states beginning 2020 and this volume is much smaller than that of Russian gas,” Aliyev added.

Azerbaijan Energy Minister added that Azerbaijan has significant gas resources, which are estimated at approximately 2,650,000,000,000 cub.m.

Aliyev also said that if Azerbaijan is offered a share in the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector (which is also known as Stara Zagora Komotini), Azerbaijan will be able to export more gas to Bulgaria, than the earlier agreed 1 billion cub.m. a year. Bulgaria’s demand in gas is 3 billion cub.m. a year.

“However, this is not the only issue, which we have discussed with the Bulgarian side. We have also discussed Azerbaijan’s possible participation in the project to expand gas storage capacities in Bulgaria and Azerbaijan’s involvement in gasification and upgrade of the chemical plants in Bulgaria,” Natig Aliyev said.—0—