Turkey to receive 50% less of Azerbaijani gas through Erzurum

By the end of this year, 800 million cubic meters of gas from the Shah Deniz field will be exported to Turkey under an extended contract for the first phase of its development, which the recipient receives in Erzurum, Report informs citing own sources.

Export via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline was resumed in September.

According to the new five-year contract, the total volume of gas supplies to Turkey from the first stage this year will amount to 1.6 billion cubic meters. Next year it will grow to 2.4 billion, in 2023 to 3.5 billion and, finally, in 2024 (the expiration date of the new contract) to 3.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

Gas exports to Turkey under a 2001 contract expired in April this year. After that, Turkey stopped receiving gas in the amount of 6.6 billion cubic meters per year, envisaged by this agreement.

In August an agreement was reached on a new contract with the Turkish gas transportation company Botas for gas from stage 1 of Shah Deniz field’s development, according to the information obtained by Report.

As for the buyers of Azerbaijani gas in the EU through the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), in 2021 the volume of sales to Europe may reach 8 billion cubic meters against expectations of 5-6 billion.

The companies that are guaranteed to receive gas from stage 2 of Shah Deniz, the total production on which will peak at 16 billion cubic meters per year, include Italy’s Edison (in 2017 it bought these rights from Gas Natural Fenosa), Shell, Bulgargaz, DEPA, Gaz de France, Hera, Enel, Axpo and Eni.

This year, the EU countries are actually just getting acquainted with Azerbaijani gas, since the SGC began to operate fully from the end of December 2020.

In 2022, gas supplies through the SGC to the EU may reach 10 billion cubic meters per year, with more than 8 billion intended for Italy (both in terms of commitments and for the sale of surplus gas on the Punto di Scambio Virtuale (PSV) exchange, the rest volumes are for Greece and Bulgaria.

Azerbaijan sells its own volumes of commercial gas in the amount of about 1.5-2 billion cubic meters per year to Georgia. Up to 400 million cubic meters of gas per year are sent to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic through swap operations with Iran, and the rest goes for Azerbaijan's own needs.

L. Evgrashina