President Aliyev: Azerbaijan has pretty diversified gas supply geography

President Ilham Aliyev has said that Azerbaijan already has a pretty diversified gas supply geography.

He made the remarks at a meeting with the heads of Germany's leading companies in Berlin on March 13, Azertac reports.

“After the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, we got requests from more than 10 European countries with respect to gas supply or increase of existing gas supply...We're doing everything in order to satisfy the needs of our partners. We already have a pretty diversified geography of our gas supply,” Aliyev said.

He noted that due to growing demand in Europe for natural gas from new sources, Azerbaijan is now planning to expand its pipeline capacity.

“Some countries already start to receive electricity from Azerbaijan and, of course, natural gas starting something more than two years ago. But, due to the growing demand in Europe for natural gas from new sources, we are now planning to expand our pipeline capacity,” he added.

The head of state noted that “n particular, TANAP, which has a capacity of 16 bcm. We will expand [it] up to 32. TAP, which has a capacity of 10 bcm, will be expanded, and we plan [to expand it] up to 20. And that is mainly, because of the growing demand from Europe. Because, you can imagine the pipeline of the length of 3,500 kilometres integrated, free pipeline system commissioned 1st January 2021, now needs expansion”.

Aliyev said that Azerbaijan supplies many European countries with oil, oil products, and petrochemicals.

“Azerbaijan was named recently, a year ago, less than a year ago, as a reliable partner in the energy sector for Europe by President of the European Commission Madamme Ursula von der Leyen. It's a big honour to get such, how to say, appraisal of our accomplishment. Really, we are a reliable target. We supply many European countries with oil, oil products, and petrochemicals,” the head of state noted.

Aliyev said that Azerbaijan is working to provide necessary transmission capabilities to export energy volumes.

“The potential of renewable sources of wind and solar in Azerbaijan is close to 200 gigawatts. So, now we're working already not only to continue to attract foreign investors but also to provide necessary transmission capabilities to export this volume,” he said.

The president said that Azerbaijan needs a lot of resources to implement the program of return of former refugees to territories liberated from Armenia's occupation in 2020.

“We're planning to implement projects based on absolutely new modern standards. We already announced Karabakh and East Zangazur as green energy zone. There'll be only renewable sources of energy, which will not only feed the demands of people and industry but also will be very useful for the rest of the country,” the head of state underlined.

He said that Azerbaijan has the plan to transform Nakhchivan into a green energy zone.

"We have also a plan to transform Nakhchivan into a green energy zone, along with Karabakh and East Zangazur. There is a big potential of the hydropower station building in Nakhchivan...We will have some developments with respect to the construction of the 500-megawatt solar power station. At the same time, the traditional power station in Nakhchivan is also more than welcome because Nakhchivan has great export potential. Because it borders Türkiye and Iran, and in both countries, there is a growing demand for electric energy,” the head of state noted.

Meanwhile, he said that over 400 former refugees had been resettled within only one year and a half after the 2020 war ended.

“Among our main future plans, of course, is the reconstruction of liberated areas of Karabakh and East Zangazur, which were under occupation for almost 30 years. Now territory of the size of Lebanon is totally in ruins... So, we already started the state program, which is called the Great Return. We elaborated already a program. We have already implemented the first pilot project and resettled more than 400 former refugees within only one year and a half after the war ended. And our plan is to resettle hundreds of thousands of former refugees. Because, as a result of Armenian occupation, we had more than 1 million internally displaced people and people who became refugees,” the head of state noted.

Aliyev said that Azerbaijan worked very hard to channel funds, which we accumulated from energy revenues to transportation infrastructure.

“We worked very hard in order to channel the funds, which we accumulated from oil and gas revenues to transportation infrastructure. Now it is almost done. It was almost done based on the prognosis, which we had and which actually is totally covered by our infrastructure,” he said.

The head of state touched upon the growing demand for Azerbaijani transportation infrastructure as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war, adding: “Last year we had an increase in transit goods by more than 75 per cent. And we even had some jam at our relatively newly-built Trade Sea Port, which has a handling capacity of 15 million tons. So, we are working very hard. We allocate additional financing for the expansion of the capacity of our seaports and railroad infrastructure. And, of course, all that needs to be implemented. And of course, we hope that companies from Germany will be our partners in that area.”

He said that during the past 20 years, Azerbaijan's economy had grown more than three times and this can be considered a world record.

“During the past 20 years, our economy has grown more than three times. I think this can be considered a world record. And at the same time, we based on our reduction of the direct foreign debt strategy and reduced the foreign debt, and this first January 2023, it was less than 10 per cent of GDP. So, that was actually a target, which I put in front of the government several years ago,” the Azerbaijani president underlined.

He stressed that now Azerbaijan targets to work more on the diversification of its economy.

Aliyev described the past 20 years as years of rapid economic growth, mainly driven by the energy sector.

"Now the target is to work more on diversification of our economy. Because with respect to the structure of GDP, most part of the GDP is now produced in the non-energy sector. But still, our export mainly is oil and gas,” he said.

The head of state said that Azerbaijan’s development allowed it to rely on its own resources.

“Azerbaijan’s development allowed us to rely on our own resources. The country is economically independent, and that was one of the main targets of our government. We are actually close to the conclusion of implementation of our projects, which are financed by international financial institutions,” he noted.