On a visit to Azerbaijan on Tuesday 3 March, the European Commissioner for Energy, Dan Jørgensen, stressed the importance of Azeri gas for the EU and called for purchases to continue.
“We are very satisfied with the collaboration and how we’ve managed to increase our imports. We think there is potential to buy even more in the future”, he said at a press conference alongside Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister, Parviz Shahbazov.
In 2025, gas from Azerbaijan will account for 3.8% of imports into the EU (12 bcm), according to Commission figures.
The Commissioner recalled the EU’s efforts to divest itself of the last remaining Russian gas imports (still 13% of total EU gas imports), following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and said that “in a turbulent world, we cherish our friends even more”.
This turbulence is also present in the Middle East, with the recent flare-up of the conflict between the United States and Israel on the one hand, and Iran on the other, and the deleterious effects this is having on the international oil and gas markets.
As a spokeswoman for the European Commission pointed out, the annual bilateral meeting with Azerbaijan, convened on Tuesday, “comes at just the right time”, particularly in the wake of the announcement by the Qatari state-owned company QatarEnergy that it would suspend its LNG production following an Iranian drone attack on its facilities. Qatar accounts for 3.8% of EU gas imports (12 bcm).
Commissioner Jørgensen also welcomed bilateral cooperation in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)