Any immediate boost to gas supplies from Azerbaijan would be limited, with a significant increase requiring European buyers to sign long-term gas contracts, said Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the UK, Report informs referring to Bloomberg.
“While additional exports wouldn’t be enough to replace top supplier Russia, the energy-rich nation can send more volumes to the continent. Still, any significant boost in volumes would require Europe to sign long-term gas contracts,” he said.
“If there is an urgent need as we saw in Turkey, some volumes, of course, would be made available,” Suleymanov said in an interview in London. “But Azerbaijani volumes are not equal to the Russian volumes, that’s obvious.”
“Azerbaijan can produce more gas and expand its Southern Gas Corridor, a supply system partly owned by British oil major BP Plc that took more than seven years and $33 billion to be built. It can also channel flows from Turkmenistan as the two nations are set to develop a previously disputed field in the Caspian Sea,” Suleymanov said.
The meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor will host representatives of the UK, the US, the EU and Turkey, Suleymanov said.
“We don’t look at energy security and potential expansion and increase in volumes through a short-term crisis, you cannot succeed with short-term mandates,” Suleymanov said. “It’s long-term planning, it is a process, it’s not like someone shows up and says ‘Give me more gas.’”
European gas prices more than tripled last year as demand rebounded at a time supply just couldn’t keep up. Production in the continent has been in decline for years, Russia has been curbing supplies since the summer and lower renewables output left countries from France to Germany relying on dirty coal and even oil to keep the lights on.
“By now the coal production probably polluted more air within a couple of months than gas would do in years,” Suleymanov said. “There is a certain hypocrisy in this.”