BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 4. In October, North Macedonia might jump on the bandwagon and become one of the European countries that Azerbaijan supplies with gas, an informed source told Trend.
Noteworthy that since late 2023, North Macedonia has been buying Azerbaijani gas through middlemen, making its debut in December 2023 with the purchase of 12 million cubic meters.
“Deliveries continued in 2024, and during negotiations this year between SOCAR and representatives of North Macedonian companies, it was decided to formalize cooperation in October 2024,” the source stressed.
Thus, North Macedonia is perhaps poised to become the eleventh nation globally to receive gas from Azerbaijan.
The Northern Macedonian company “ESM Prodazba” (a gas division of the energy company of Northern Macedonia, “Elektrani na Severna Makedonija”), in December 2023, reported the beginning of natural gas purchases from the Bulgarian trader “Graystone Bulgaria LTD," with Azerbaijani gas in the mixture received from him, along with American gas.
This gas mixture flowed to Northern Macedonia from Bulgaria through a pipeline that is under long-term management by Gazprom until 2030.
According to European rules, Gazprom has allocated half of its capacity in this pipeline to other gas suppliers.
To note, as early as late October 2023, North Macedonia's Economy Minister Kresnik Bekteshi requested the Bulgarian government to increase gas pumping through the only gas pipeline running through Bulgaria to North Macedonia, and without Russian gas.
The EBRD announced the provision of a 98.59 million euro loan to the North Macedonian company NOMAGAS in February 2024 for the construction of sections of the pipeline with Greece, including so that North Macedonia can receive gas from the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (the European part of the Southern Gas Corridor).
Azerbaijan supplied 11.8 bcm of gas to Europe in 2023 and may increase the volume to 12.5–13 bcm in 2024 (via TAP and the Malkochlar/Strandzha hub).
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