Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan attends 7th International Energy Forum - International Gas Union Ministerial Gas Forum

On December 3, the 7th IEF-IGU Ministerial Gas Forum was held under the theme “Towards Recovery and Shared Prosperity: Natural Gas Opportunities for a Sustainable World”. Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov also attended the meeting. The forum, hosted by the Malaysian government in a virtual format, exchanged views on The role of natural gas in growing markets, new prospectives in the natural gas markets, energy policies and business strategies that will serve a sustainable future and support dynamic development in the world gas markets.

Speaking at the Ministerial Roundtable on the topic “Opportunities in Growing Gas Markets: Producer-Consumer Perspective on New Realities", organized within the Forum, the Minister of Energy gave detailed information about the Southern Gas Corridor project and said that natural gas will be transported to Europe by the end of this year.  At the same time, it was informed about The South Caucasus Pipeline, TANAP, and TAP pipelines, and noted that  these pipelines also have the potential to increase transport capacity in future and expand the Southern Gas Corridor to a wider geography, including Southeast Europe and the Balkans.

Gas production in Azerbaijan, projected at 38 bcm this year, is expected to reach approximately 50 bcm in 2023, and the annual production from the Shah Deniz field, the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor, is expected to reach 18,7 bcm this year and 25,3 bcm in 2023.  So far, approximately 133 bcm of gas have been extracted and more than 88.6 bcm of gas were exported from this field.

It was also noted that with the counter-offensive operation and subsequent political settlement of Azerbaijan, our occupied territories were liberated and the 30-year Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was ended, thereby military threats to energy, including gas infrastructure in Azerbaijan remained in the past.

About 100 high-level government officials, including ministers, industry leaders, heads of international organizations and experts attended at the forum.