President Aliyev: Azerbaijan seeks greater presence in European energy market

President Ilham Aliyev has reaffirmed Azerbaijan’s ambition to deepen its footprint in Europe’s energy landscape, pledging increased gas supplies and expanded transit capacity as new upstream projects come online.

“We want to increase our presence in the European energy market,” Ilham Aliyev said, addressing the 12th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council and the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Green Energy Advisory Council in Baku on March 3, Caliber.Az reports via state media.

Highlighting recent export growth, the head of state noted that Azerbaijan has begun supplying gas to two additional European countries — Germany and Austria — bringing the total number of EU member states receiving Azerbaijani gas to ten. “In the coming years, with respect to the new production of gas from Azerbaijani fields, we may increase the output,” he emphasised.

“We have already started to supply two more countries in Europe — Germany and Austria. Thus, today, 10 members of the EU receive gas from Azerbaijan. In the coming years, with respect to the new production of gas from Azerbaijani fields, we may increase the output,” the head of state emphasised.

At the same time, Aliyev underscored the strategic importance of new energy connectivity projects. “We need to work jointly on energy cables, including the energy cable stretching from Azerbaijan to Europe across the Black Sea, and the energy cable from Central Asia to Azerbaijan,” President Aliyev said.

“If we look forward to when all these projects are materialised, we will see that they will be very sustainable and, I would say, existential for many countries' energy corridors. Our renewable plans are based on contracts that have already been signed,” the head of state noted.

Turning to upstream developments, Aliyev announced that production from the ACG deep gas field is expected to begin this year. “This year, we expect the beginning of production from the ACG deep gas field. In two or three years, we expect the beginning of the full-phase development of the Absheron field, which will increase gas production from Absheron three times. We also expect the beginning of gas production from the second phase of the Umid field,” the head of state pointed out.

Looking further ahead, the president stated that a new production phase at Shah Deniz is anticipated in 2028. “All these gas production profiles will allow us, at the maximum level of production, to reach an additional 10 to 15 billion cubic meters of gas,” he said.

Moreover, Aliyev underscored Azerbaijan’s strategic role as a reliable transit hub for energy resources. “We provide important oil transit for Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and year after year, the volume of oil transported through our system is growing. We are capable and have the infrastructure to receive more oil from the eastern shores of the Caspian,” he added.

By Khagan Isayev