Eurostat: Greece boosts spending on Azerbaijani gas imports

Greece's expenditure on Azerbaijani gas imports reached €57.4 million in July 2024, a rise from €55.7 million in July 2023, indicating an increase of just over 3%.

According to Eurostat data provided to local media, from January to July 2024, Greece's total spending on Azerbaijani gas imports amounted to €362 million, a 37.5% reduction compared to €579.5 million during the same period in 2023, Caliber.Az reports.

In volume terms, Greece imported 162.8 million cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan in July 2024, marking an 8.64% drop from the 178.2 million cubic meters imported in July of the previous year. Over the first seven months of 2024, Greece imported a total of 1.12 billion cubic meters from Azerbaijan, a decrease of 8.3% compared to 1.2 billion cubic meters for the same period in 2023.

Azerbaijan’s gas exports to Europe began on December 31, 2020, via the Southern Gas Corridor, which connects the Caspian region to Europe through Georgia and Türkiye.

In July 2022, Azerbaijan and the EU agreed to double gas exports via this route, with the aim of increasing capacity from the current 10 billion cubic meters to 20 billion cubic meters by 2027.

Meanwhile, Romania's Energy Minister Sebastian-Ioan Burduja emphasized that his country no longer relies on Russian gas, stating, "Romania does not import a single molecule of Russian gas." Instead, he highlighted that Romania sources its gas from Azerbaijan through Türkiye.

Acknowledging the differing situations among European countries, Burduja noted that some of Romania's neighbours feel they have no alternative to Russian gas, but he stressed Romania’s shift to Azerbaijani gas as an example of a different approach. "This is how all European states should behave," he said. "Of course, we have neighbours who say they have no choice and should continue to import [natural gas] from Russia. Generally, we import through Bulgaria, which means it is gas that comes from Türkiye via major pipelines, including gas from Azerbaijan. Although once it reaches Türkiye, it is considered Turkish gas."

By Tamilla Hasanova