Azerbaijani envoy meets with Albanian presidential aide

Azerbaijani Ambassador to Albania Anar Huseynov met on June 8 with a diplomatic adviser to the President of this country Fatmir Chela.

The diplomat announced the meeting on his Twitter account.

"Had the pleasure to meet H.E. Mr Fatmir Çela, Diplomatic Adviser to the President of the Republic of Albania," Huseynov wrote, according to Caliber.Az.

Azerbaijan and Albania have been experiencing a new level of mutual ties largely based on the latter's aspirations to purchase natural gas from Azerbaijan.

The Balkan country hosts the European segment - the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) - of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) pipeline, which supplies Azerbaijani gas to European markets.

In April, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Albania could join the buyers of the Azerbaijani gas due to SGC’s crossing its territory. According to the Azerbaijani president, negotiations are currently underway with Albania to build a local gas distribution system.

Since December 31, 2020, Azerbaijan has been supplying natural gas to Europe via the TAP, which forms the final segment of the SGC. TAP starts at the Turkish-Greek border and runs along 773-kilometre onshore and 105-kilometre offshore routes traversing Greece and Albania toward its final destination in Italy.

The three-segmented SGC spans seven countries and six regulatory systems, linking 11 different investors, and supplying 12 different gas buyers, primarily in Europe. The pipeline’s initial 16 bcm annual transportation volume is shared between Türkiye and Europe, which receive 6 bcm, and 10 bcm, respectively. The main source of natural gas for the SGC is Azerbaijan’s offshore Shah Deniz field, with an estimated 1.2 trillion cubic meters of proven reserves.

Currently, the European market accounts for the largest share of daily gas exports from Azerbaijan. European consumers are supplied with about 27 million cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas per day.