Gasifying Azerbaijan: Improving security and cracking down on theft Review by Caliber.Az

January 2024 has been frosty and snowy, and forecasters are predicting new precipitation and freezing weather in late January and February, especially in the mountainous regions of Azerbaijan. But despite this month's surprises in Baku and other cities across the country, there has been little in the way of recent pressure drops in the gas networks and a dramatic worsening of heating conditions. This reflects the country's accelerated gasification in recent years. This year, SOCAR's Azerigaz subdivision will start the final stage of gasification. Along with the supply of several dozen settlements in the regions of the country, the main focus will be on the development of gas infrastructure in the Karabakh region.

Presidential approval of the decree "About Simplifying the Procedure of Issuing Permits for the Operation of Some Residential Houses" of February 19, 2019, gave significant impetus to the gasification of residential houses in the country. The use of individual gasification mechanisms has also increased. In addition, since last autumn, the procedure for supplying gas to private residential buildings with a total gas consumption of less than 10 cubic metres per hour, providing them with gas meters and further connection to the network has been simplified.

In general, the level of gasification last year approached 96.4 per cent, according to the results of two state programmes for the socio-economic development of regions for 2014-2018 and the recently completed period 2019-2023. Recent years have seen the construction of main and distribution gas transmission infrastructure, the modernisation of the Garadagh and Kalmaz underground gas storage facilities, the implementation of key components of the Greater Baku Gas Supply Project, and the creation of a modern system for monitoring and collecting fees from gas distribution network subscribers. By the end of last year, as a result of accelerating and simplifying the process of gasification of apartment blocks and private houses, the number of subscribers to Azerigaz had exceeded 2.545 million: for comparison, 11 years ago their number did not exceed 720,000, so we're talking about more than tripling.

As a result, by the end of last year, Azerbaijan was one of the best in the post-Soviet space in terms of gasification coverage, ahead of several neighbouring countries such as Iran and Turkey, with the capital and major cities, district administrative centres, urban settlements and villages in the country fully gasified.

However, two decades ago, the level of gasification in Azerbaijan, despite the presence of rich deposits of the "blue" fuel, was only around 51 per cent, many outlying areas had no gas infrastructure at all, and the cities suffered from continuous gas supply disruptions, especially in winter.

Nowadays, the stability of the central gas supply systems is much better, as the current cold and snowy winter has shown, and to date, all the country's towns and villages have been receiving gas as usual.

Another important fact is that with the onset of the energy crisis in Europe, Azerbaijan, within the framework of its export agreements with the European Commission, not only stepped up gas production at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) and Shah Deniz fields, but also stepped up the development of the Umid and Absheron gas condensate fields, which are expected to produce about 3 and 1.5 billion cubic metres of gas, respectively, this year. As a result, these additional volumes, together with SOCAR's own production, will total about 17 bcm of gas. This will fully meet domestic demand (about 14 bcm) and fulfil contractual obligations to supply Georgia. This fact explains, inter alia, the absence of a gas deficit in Azerigaz and the full supply of blue fuel to all subscribers during the current cold winter. Moreover, even taking into account the fact that swap gas supplies from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan via Iran in 2024 have been terminated due to tariff discrepancies, Azerbaijan is fully capable of meeting growing domestic demand.

One more crucial task - accelerating the gasification of the Karabakh and East Zangezur economic regions - will be solved by the abundance of gas for the domestic market. In this direction, Azerigaz's priority is to lay gas infrastructure in the direction of Fuzuli-Aghoglan-Shusha, followed by distribution lines and other equipment in the Aghdam district. The third stage will cover Jabrayil, Zangilan, Gubadli and Lachin districts, finishing with Kalbajar district. In particular, work is underway to modernise the gas distribution infrastructure in Shusha and Khankendi, and at the end of last year, PO specialists completed laying underground gas pipelines (using steel and polyethene pipes) to Dovletyarli and Dedeli villages in Fuzuli district. Earlier, in November 2023, the gas supply to the town of Lachin and the village of Zabukh was started. All the infrastructure was created and gas meters were installed.

The assessment of the progress of Azerigaz's work in the Karabakh region and beyond should be tempered by the fact that there are still shortcomings in gas supply and customer service that must be addressed. In particular, the agency must also diversify its plans for laying infrastructure to remote settlements in peripheral areas, as in recent years gasification has mainly covered residential areas located near the main gas pipelines, which is much cheaper and easier. It is also necessary to restore order in the field of installation of gas meters in apartments and private houses: since July 2021, Azerigaz has not charged subscribers for the installation of control and measurement devices, but some Housing and Construction Cooperatives (HCC) illegally demand a significant fee from apartment owners for their installation. Extortion has also been reported in connection with gas connections to low-rise buildings. It is also necessary to strengthen measures to prevent non-technical losses of gas and to uncover facts of its theft through illegal "taps" or connection of commercial objects to distribution lines bypassing meters.

However, the most pressing issue that Azerigaz needs to address is the safety of gas appliances and the prevention of gas leaks and carbon monoxide poisoning. Unfortunately, this area is still far from prosperity, and with the beginning of the heating season there is usually an increase in the number of cases of explosions in buildings due to domestic gas leaks, violations of the rules on the use of gas cylinders, or carbon monoxide poisoning due to violations of the rules on the use of chimneys, improperly placed gas appliances, and non-compliance with the minimum cubic capacity of kitchens and bathrooms for the use of gas appliances.

It should be recalled that in May 2023, Milli Majlis approved amendments to the Law "On Gas Economy", according to which Azerigaz will intensify work on the inspection of gas pipelines and installation of appliances in citizens' apartments. Ilkin Behbudov, Head of the Department of Health, Labour, Environment and Quality Control of Azerigaz, recently informed the media that this year in Azerbaijan mass inspections of compliance with the norms of installation of gas appliances in kitchens will begin, which will reveal the facts of operation of gas appliances unsuitable for housing, artisanal appliances. Special attention will be paid to the obligation of subscribers to the installation of gas leak detectors in flats and private objects and the increase of the concentration of carbon monoxide on the premises. In case of detection of defects in the gas supply system, one month will be given for their elimination: the subscribers who refuse to do so or do not allow the inspectors to enter their apartments will be subject to appropriate measures, including suspension of gas supply. In short, Azerigaz still needs to make great efforts to solve these and other problems and raise service quality to the required standards.