Italy, Greece, Bulgaria increase imports of Azerbaijani gas 1.5% in 9M - Eurostat

BAKU. Dec 9 (Interfax) - The EU countries Italy, Greece and Bulgaria increased their imports of gas from Azerbaijan 1.5% year-on-year in January-September to 369,541 terajoules (TJ).

The imports fell by 30.7% in value to 3.167 billion euros, the EU statistics agency (Eurostat) said.

Italy received 284,054 TJ of natural gas, up 4.1%, which were worth 2.5 billion euros, down 31.3% in value terms. Greece received 58,035 TJ, down 8% and worth 461.7 million euros, down 32.8%, while Bulgaria received 27,452 TJ, down 2.6% and worth 206.8 million euros, down 14.8%.

The EU countries reduced gas imports from Azerbaijan by 5.7% YoY in September to 39,277 TJ, worth 398.4 million euros, up 2.4%.

Italy received 29,752 TJ of Azerbaijani gas for 318 million euros, Greece 6,429 TJ for 57.6 million euros and Bulgaria 3,096 TJ for 22.8 million euros.

As reported, EU countries Italy, Greece and Bulgaria imported 492,900 TJ of gas for 6.2 billion euros from Azerbaijan in 2023, up 2.5% and down 60%, respectively, according to Eurostat.

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

Azerbaijani gas exports are forecast at 25 billion cubic meters in 2024, with 12.5 bcm for Europe.