Azernews.Az

President Ilham Aliyev has said Bulgaria may be one of the first countries to receive Azerbaijani gas.

"If we look at the geography, we can see that Bulgaria is one of the closest to our gas," Aliyev told a news conference with Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov on Monday. "Naturally, Bulgaria may be one of the first countries to receive our gas. We are currently in talks to achieve this. It is enough to look at the map to see that this project can be easily realized."

President Parvanov paid an official visit to Azerbaijan on Monday and Tuesday. Azerbaijani gas supplies to Bulgaria were one of the topics of the talks held during the visit.

The two countries signed a memorandum in 2009 on supplying 1 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas per year to Bulgaria. The possibility of delivering compressed gas to Bulgaria is under consideration as well.

Aliyev said Azerbaijan has put forward initiatives to supply its rich natural gas resources to world markets.

"Today, there are four pipelines connecting Azerbaijan to global markets, and all four are operational. Of course, our cooperation with the European Union in the gas industry has excellent prospects," the Azerbaijani president noted.

Aliyev said the existing gas infrastructure should be extended and a new pipeline built to supply large quantities of natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe.

"Substantial work is underway in this regard. I am confident that Azerbaijan can meet Bulgaria's gas needs to the extent that Bulgaria wishes.

"Azerbaijan's gas production is at almost 27-28 billion cubic meters today, and this is a lot. Production of an additional 17 billion cubic meters of gas is expected with the realization of the Shahdaniz-2 project [second phase of developing Azerbaijan’s largest gas field in the Caspian Sea, which begins in 2017]. If we also add the recently launched projects in Azerbaijan to this, we can see that gas output in Azerbaijan can be measured by even larger figures. This will allow us to ensure the energy security of our partners for many years to come," Aliyev said.

President Parvanov, for his part, said the issue of Azerbaijani gas supplies depends on decisions to be adopted in Bulgaria, and solutions to be reached with partners in Azerbaijan.

"These are issues relating to both gas supply and its volume," Parvanov said.

He said the agreements reached between Azerbaijan and Turkey create a framework to accelerate the process of gas purchases.

"For how much and in what volume - it will be calculated at the economics ministry, generally, our government. We have to calculate how much natural gas we need. That is, it is not the calculations made solely in the president’s office. As for prices…specific companies and firms will deal with this," Parvanov said.

Azerbaijan is planning to deliver 10 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe within Shahdaniz-2 project. Now partners in the Shahdaniz development consider proposals from the pipeline projects to determine the route via which Azerbaijani gas will be delivered to European markets.

The projects which can transport Azerbaijani gas to Europe are the Nabucco pipeline, Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI). The projects are part of the European Union-backed Southern Corridor aiming to diversify energy supply routes and sources for European nations.

In September, BP offered a new route to export Shahdaniz gas. The pipeline route is to cross countries in southeastern Europe, including Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Croatia.