Azerbaijani, Turkish and Bulgarian energy ministers discuss broader gas sector cooperation

BAKU. Nov 22 (Interfax) - The energy ministers of Azerbaijan, Bulgaria and Turkey held talks in Istanbul on Friday on the prospects for expanding trilateral cooperation in the gas sector, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said on social media.

"We discussed the prospects of expanding trilateral cooperation in the gas sector with Turkey's Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Alparslan Bayraktar, and Bulgaria's Minister of Energy, Vladimir Malinov, in Istanbul," Shahbazov said.

He said that in the first nine months of this year, more than 1.4 billion cubic meters of gas had been exported from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria and further to other European countries.

Separately, Shahbazov said a quadrilateral meeting on the supply of Green Energy had been convened in Istanbul with Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, Georgian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili and Bulgarian Energy Minister Vladimir Malinov. "During the meeting, we explored opportunities to collaborate on delivering Green Energy to Europe through various routes, leveraging the renewable energy potential of Azerbaijan and Central Asia," he said.

Shahbazov also said he and Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar discussed the issues on the agenda of bilateral energy cooperation. "We evaluated the current status of joint projects related to the supply of Green Energy and gas to Turkey and from there to Europe, the completion of the construction of the Igdir-Nakhchivan pipeline, and the organization of the 4th Azerbaijan-Turkey Energy Forum," he said.

Azerbaijan has gas supply contracts with eight countries in Europe: Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia. It has long-term contracts with a fixed supply volume with Italy, Greece and Bulgaria, and contracts without fixed volumes with the rest.

Also, the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) signed a memorandum on gas supplies with Slovakia and a short-term contract with North Macedonia on November 12-15.