BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 6. Azerbaijan is in talks with three European states that could potentially jump on the bandwagon and become Azerbaijani gas customers, an informed source told Trend.
“Negotiations are currently underway with North Macedonia, Slovakia, and Austria on delivery of Azerbaijani gas to them,” the source noted.
According to the source, gas is expected to be delivered to Northern Macedonia through Bulgaria, as there have been previous trial deliveries in this regard.
“The gas supplies to Slovakia and Austria are supposed to use the mechanism of swaps,” the source added.
To recall, on May 7, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico told Azerbaijani media in Baku that Slovakia and Austria are largely dependent on Russian gas that flows through Ukraine to the Baumgarten gas hub (in Austria, close to the border with Slovakia), while the contract between Gazprom and Ukraine expires at the end of 2024.
Fico pointed out that Slovakia needs a whopping 4-5 bcm of gas per year.
In fact, about 80 percent of Austria's needs are still riding on the back of Russian gas, but as part of the effort to spread their eggs across different baskets, Austria has previously struck a deal with neighboring Germany and Italy to dip their toes into the pool of gas from their liquefied natural gas terminals and their gas hub exchanges.
“The anticipated swap deliveries of Azerbaijani gas to Slovakia and Austria mean that we are giving gas on a market that is liquid for us, particularly the Italian market, to those partner companies that have a gas portfolio in both Austria and Slovakia. In other words, our “customer” in Slovakia and Austria is given gas from their portfolios in exchange for ours. This is called a swap operation,” the source explained.
The ink is expected to dry on the relevant agreements between SOCAR and companies in Northern Macedonia, Austria, and Slovakia in the fourth quarter of 2024.
This year, Azerbaijan is able to sell more than 12 billion cubic meters of gas to customers in Europe.