BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 22. The Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade's Director for Energy Strategy and International Cooperation, Petr Binhack, was interviewed by Trend this week, who expressed his belief that the supply of oil and gas from Azerbaijan to Central and Eastern Europe may potentially rise, Trend reports.
The Czech Republic is among the top 5 buyers of Azerbaijani oil, and over the past couple of years, the volume of Azerbaijani oil purchases for its Kralupy and Vltava refineries amounted to a total of 2 million tons. Binhack also noted that the Czech Republic, which is now 50 percent dependent on Russian gas, supports projects to diversify gas sources and recognizes the importance of alternative routes. The Czech representative emphasized that the Czech Republic's ultimate aim is to replace Russian supplies.
Also, news broke this week that the Netherlands had bought oil from Azerbaijan for the first time. According to information gathered from customs declarations and the State Customs Committee, the value of 89,995 tons of oil purchased from Azerbaijan in May was $57.09 million.
The largest customer of Azerbaijan's oil is traditionally Italy, which, from January through May 2024, purchased 3.94 million tons of Azerbaijani oil out of the total export volume of 9.87 million tons. Azerbaijan's revenue from oil sales to Italy amounted to $2.52 billion.
The State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) this week started supplying natural gas to industrial enterprises in Bulgaria following the agreement signed between the governments of Azerbaijan and Bulgaria on May 8, as well as based on the strategy of expanding SOCAR's commercial participation in the European gas market. SOCAR's partners in these supplies are Bulgarian companies Assarel and M-GAS.
The main volumes of gas from Azerbaijan to the EU go through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP, the European section of the Southern Gas Corridor). The TAP AG consortium reported this week that 4.91 bcm of natural gas was transported through TAP in the first five months of 2024. Of this volume, 0.38 bcm was transported to Bulgaria, 0.42 bcm to Greece, and 4.08 bcm to Italy.
Gas for the EU comes from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field from the end of 2020. This week, bp made an announcement about their new drone inspection program in the Caspian Sea. They utilized an Elios 3 drone to check empty tanks on the Shah Deniz Alpha platform for the first time.
Revenues from gas sales from Shah Deniz go to the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ). This week, it became known that SOFAZ joined a consortium led by Canadian company Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. This consortium will invest in the international educational company GEMS Education, with headquarters in Dubai.
The EU and Ukraine have requested that Azerbaijan supply Azerbaijani gas through Ukraine beginning in 2025, a time when Ukraine intends to halt the transit of Russian gas. This information was widely reported in the global media this week. It is worth noting that the main recipients of Russian gas via Ukraine are now Austria, Slovakia, Italy, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, and Moldova, but they are trying to diversify their sources. One of the discussed options is to buy gas from Azerbaijan and transport it through Russian gas pipelines via Ukraine.
Remarkably, this week SOCAR President Rovshan Najaf and Ukraine's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Azerbaijan Yuri Husyev discussed current and future cooperation in the energy sector between the countries. The parties expressed satisfaction with the successful development of SOCAR Energy Ukraine's business. SOCAR is interested in Ukraine's gas infrastructure, including its gas storage facilities.
One of the issues this week is the manufacturing of petroleum products in Azerbaijan. The State Statistics Committee (SSC) of Azerbaijan has reported that the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery in Baku produced 615,000 tons of motor gasoline in the first five months of this year, showing a 7.7 percent increase compared to the same time in 2023. Production of jet fuel rose by 20.6 percent to 267,700 tons. Diesel fuel output at refineries from January through May 2024 amounted to 980,600 tons, which is 6.2 percent more than in the same period of 2023. These are the main types of oil products of Azerbaijan.
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