Azerbaijan ready to increase energy supplies to Italy

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan has expressed its readiness to increase energy supplies to Italy, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio has said, according to Day.az.

The minister noted that Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi will travel to Algeria on April 11 to sign an agreement on new natural gas supplies. He recalled that in the last month and a half he visited Azerbaijan, Algeria, Qatar and a number of other countries, noting that "all these countries have expressed their willingness to increase energy supplies to Italy".

Azerbaijan is a major supplier of energy to Italy. Azerbaijan started commercial gas supplies to Europe via the Southern Gas Corridor, with the completion of the TAP construction on December 31, 2020. The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) has transported 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe in 2021. Of the total amount of transported gas, over 6.8 billion cubic meters reached Italy. 

Earlier, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that about 19 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas will be exported in 2022. Of this volume, more than 8 billion cubic meters will be exported to Turkey and more than 7 billion cubic meters to Italy. 

In Azerbaijan, over 100 Italian companies operating in various fields are registered. Italian firms have contracts worth more than € 10 billion ($11.8 billion) for Azerbaijani projects both inside and outside the country.

Azerbaijan's total investment in the Italian economy is estimated to be around € 1.7 billion ($2 billion), with Italy investing approximately € 770 million ($910.8 million) in Azerbaijan.

Italy was Azerbaijan's top trade partner in January-February 2022, with a total trade turnover of $3.1 billion between the two countries.

Italy was also one of the first countries to express support for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, as well as an interest in participating in restoration efforts in Azerbaijan's liberated territories. Thus, Italy and Israel have already begun work on a joint project to transform the liberated Zangilan region into a smart city.