BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Over the course of two years, the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), via its trading house - SOCAR Trading, marketed 600 million cubic meters of natural gas, excluding contractual volumes from the Shah Deniz Caspian field, to Eastern and Southeastern Europe, an informed source told Trend.
"Since 2022, SOCAR Trading has facilitated the delivery of 600 million cubic meters of gas to Eastern Europe. These volumes are separate from the contractual supplies to Europe by the Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company (AGSC) from the Shah Deniz field since December 2020,” the source clarified.
He further mentioned that this independent supply volume notably encompasses gas deliveries by SOCAR Trading to Hungary, Moldova, and Bulgaria.
"To Bulgaria and Moldova, such deliveries were facilitated through Türkiye's gas network and the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline,” the source added.
According to him, SOCAR primarily sells surplus gas, if available, at the Balkan Gas Hub in Bulgaria.
"We aim to increase the sales of surplus gas (if any) at Italian hubs (exchanges), where gas market prices are higher than in Bulgaria. However, this is challenging at present as the capacities of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (the European segment of the Southern Gas Corridor) are fully utilized for gas from Shah Deniz (marketed by AGSC), and there is no other available infrastructure,” the source explained.
Currently, gas prices in the EU range between $350-400 per 1,000 cubic meters, which is half the price compared to last year.
