SOCAR chief says Azerbaijan has enough resources to secure Europe’s energy supply

Azerbaijan has sufficient resources to ensure Europe’s energy security and is ready to expand its role in supplying the region, Rovshan Najaf, president of state oil company SOCAR, said on Thursday.

Speaking at the 16th Eurasian Kazenergy Forum in Astana, Najaf said Azerbaijan already plays an important role in energy security beyond Europe.

“In August we started gas supplies to Syria, and if you asked us six months earlier, we would have said it was not in our plans. We are ready to play a bigger role in ensuring energy security in the wider region. We have enough resources for this,” he said.

Najaf noted that SOCAR increased gas exports to Europe by nearly 60% at a critical moment in 2022 at the request of European partners, without financial support from the EU. He stressed that existing export infrastructure had been financed by Azerbaijan and its partners, who bore the risks, and that future sustainability requires expanding pipelines.

“SOCAR is ready to further ramp up gas supplies to Europe, provided there is cooperation from European partners — first of all through long-term contracts, and secondly through joint investment in infrastructure expansion. We need support from EU financial institutions and funding from European countries,” he said.

He added that oil and gas will remain in use for decades, with natural gas expected to play a key role at least until 2070. “That is why we continue to invest in gas projects,” he said, adding that SOCAR also has “many other projects” in the pipeline.