The question is "whose gas is in the pipe?" appeared almost out of nowhere. Finding no other reasons to loudly discredit Azerbaijan, certain European circles noisily threw it into the discourse. Of course, those who do not receive Azerbaijani gas were making noise. "The tsar is not real," or rather, "the gas is not real!" the European media began to write vying. In other words, it is not Shah Deniz gas that is being piped into the Southern Gas Corridor, but some other, completely foreign gas. Azerbaijan and its partners patiently denied the rumors. However, disinformation continues to be released into the Western and Ukrainian media at every opportunity.

On the eve, one of the Ukrainian media again began to discuss in detail a non-existent topic, exposing the idea of the European Union on the possibility of replacing Russian gas with Azerbaijani gas as a proposal from Baku, once again creating a storm in a glass of water. The "ridiculous scheme" that the Ukrainian media is talking about has to do with Azerbaijan only insofar as his name was present in the discussions.

Back in September, the attitude of the Ukrainian side was different. Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, told reporters that the country is ready to transport fuel from other countries to Europe. According to him, Europe can now use gas from Azerbaijan or Kazakhstan instead of Russian gas. "It may be another transit gas that will come, for example, from Central Asian countries," Podolyak was quoted as saying by the media. According to him, if Europe wants to receive gas from Kazakhstan or Azerbaijan, Kiev will provide supplies if there are appropriate logistics, a request and a contract that will separately specify the transitive role of Ukraine.

But first things first.

In early December, Azerbaijan began supplying natural gas to Slovakia. Slovakia has become the twelfth country to receive Azerbaijani gas after Turkiye, Georgia, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia and North Macedonia. This cannot be regarded as anything but a success. Slovak company SPP, which is the largest operator of the national gas energy system, has signed a short-term pilot contract for the supply of gas from Azerbaijan with SOCAR. The country is completely dependent on Russian gas supplies through Ukraine and fears for its energy security due to the termination of transit through this pipeline from December 31, 2024. In other words, in a few days Slovakia, as well as a number of other importers of Russian gas, will be left without fuel.

As you know, any success of Azerbaijan is hard to bear in some circles. Therefore, after the announcement that Azerbaijani gas would go to another EU country, the topic of "not real gas" was raised again and became the subject of discussion. Let's recall a fake article in Politico Europe that appeared after the successful completion of COP29. The article claimed without any evidence that Azerbaijan was allegedly selling Russian gas to European partners, and it would supply the same gas through a Ukrainian pipe to Europe if the parties could reach an agreement. False narratives were picked up and spread by the "wind". The Azerbaijani side once again had to explain on its fingers to everyone why Russian gas could not possibly reach Europe through Azerbaijan. The denials came from the European Union itself. Tim McPhee, representative of the European Commission on Climate and Energy Issues, told reporters that the Southern Gas Corridor, which supplies Azerbaijani gas to the EU through Georgia and Turkiye, has access only to the Azerbaijani gas field and is in no way connected to the broader national gas transportation network. In addition, Azerbaijan has imported only 1 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia for domestic consumption in two years, and it sends half of the 24 billion cubic meters of gas it exports to Europe, McPhee stressed.

After the statements of the representative of the European Commission, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Germany Nasimi Aghayev wrote on his page on the social network X: "Oh, but what will the "rumor mill" of some EU politicians, experts and journalists come up with now? Of course, they won't let such a small thing as facts get in their way!"

And he was right. Indeed, the most egregious facts and evidence are not a hindrance to biased media. The authors of provocations always rely on the fact that no one will see our refutations, but what is written, for example, by Euronews or the Financial Times, will be read and assimilated.

The so-called Bruegel think tank thought it over and came to the conclusion that Azerbaijan, if the transit deal through Ukraine takes place, will sell Russian gas to Europe instead of its own. This office conducted a study in October and announced that "Russia will supply gas to Ukraine labeled as Azerbaijani gas, and Azerbaijan will buy gas from Russia labeled as Russian gas using the same infrastructure." Bruegel is a European research organization working in the field of international economics. The unequivocal conclusions, unsubstantiated by the think tank, cast doubt on its competence.

Euronews reported the other day that after a meeting with the leaders of the European Union in Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that his country would no longer allow the transit of Russian gas through its territory. "And the ban," the newspaper quotes, "will apply to any gas flow from Russia in order to avoid the risk of selling Russian gas to Europe under the guise of Azerbaijani gas."

Euronews admits that Zelensky himself did not directly mention Azerbaijan, this was done by a Financial Times journalist who asked him a question. And in this form, the words of the President of Ukraine began to travel through the Western and Russian media. Nevertheless, although the journalist gave a kick, it cannot be said that he was greatly mistaken. You didn't have to say Azerbaijan's name - it's still clear to whom this is addressed: "We don't want to play a game in which another country receives gas from Russia and then transits it. It's the same as continuing to profit from this war and sending money to Russia."

In fact, Baku is being accused of something it has not done and is not going to do. The idea of exporting its gas through the Ukrainian pipeline does not belong to Baku. Maintaining transit through the Ukrainian gas pipeline was the idea of the Europeans, and as far as can be judged from media reports, Ukraine also did not initially say an unequivocal "no", but joined the discussions. I must admit that we were surprised here. In general, the very continuation of Russian gas transit after the outbreak of the war was an incomprehensible decision. For the past two years, gas has been regularly flowing through the territory of Ukraine, where Russian shells have been falling, to Europe, which has also regularly voted for sanctions against Russia. Ukraine received income from transit, Russia from exports, and the Europeans quietly warmed their apartments. In general, everyone was happy and no one was left out. Therefore, when there was a fuss about the fake about Russian gas in the YUGK pipe, it sounded very strange. Those who were outraged were those who, despite their righteous anger at Moscow's actions in Ukraine, nevertheless did not shy away from increasing gas purchases and thus financing Russia. And even more abnormal were the outrages from the Ukrainian side, which received a stable income from pumping gas from the enemy state to its allies. The situation is completely abnormal.

In June, Bloomberg reported, citing sources, that EU officials were negotiating the continuation of gas supplies through the key Russia-Ukraine pipeline in 2025. According to sources, one of the options being discussed is for European companies to buy gas from Azerbaijan and pump it into Russian pipelines going to Europe. "Such an agreement would allow Europe to avoid the embarrassment of buying Russian gas at a time when it is trying to reduce Moscow's revenues," the publication says. Ukraine's benefits from such a deal were also discussed. In 2021 alone, the country's revenues from gas transit amounted to about $1 billion. And if you believe the Russian media, then under the contract signed in 2019, the country earned 2-3 billion dollars a year. For health.

The European Union and Ukraine have asked Azerbaijan to facilitate negotiations with Russia on the agreement, which expires at the end of this year. According to Reuters, the Azerbaijani side made efforts during the year, but Kiev and Moscow failed to reach an agreement.

It was also not possible to agree on the replacement of Russian gas in the pipeline with Azerbaijani gas. In principle, if an agreement is reached between the Russian and Ukrainian sides, Azerbaijan could help Europe, but it does not have enough gas to develop it through this pipeline. In order to fill this pipe, it is necessary to increase the production of existing considerable reserves, but this requires investment, and Europe, as you know, has already forbidden itself to invest in oil and gas projects due to the hypothetical complete abandonment of fossil fuels. Supplies can only be carried out through swap transactions, but in this case, the topic "gas is not real" will constantly be on the agenda. Is that what we need?

Responding to a question from Reuters during the Second Shusha Media Forum in July this year, President Ilham Aliyev confirmed that Ukraine and the European Commission had asked Baku to assist in extending the contract with Russia. "If we can help, we will help," he said. At the same time, the head of state made it clear that Azerbaijan intends to act cautiously, bearing in mind the fake accusations of allegedly reselling Russian gas to European partners.

"You've probably heard that Azerbaijan has been accused of reselling Russian gas to Europe again. And this is another completely fake news. To give just one example: yes, we contracted one billion cubic meters of gas from Russia when the price on international markets was very high, and the price of Russian gas was affordable. It was a purely commercial transaction, nothing more. And, as I said, we export 25 billion cubic meters, and we import only 1 billion cubic meters. So the accusations that we are a kind of channel for the export of Russian gas are absolutely unfair. It was an absolute lie. Therefore, having such an experience, we behave very carefully. We have enough of what we have today, it is quite enough for us," the President of Azerbaijan said.

In short, Azerbaijan brokered the extension of the contract between Russia and Ukraine on gas transit to Europe. The Head of state emphasized this once again in his speech at the Cernobbio International Forum in September. He said that Russia, Ukraine and European institutions have appealed to Azerbaijan in connection with the continuation of gas transit through Ukraine and great efforts have been made to come to a common denominator. The Azerbaijani President stressed that if transit stops, several European Union countries will face serious difficulties. Baku wants to support these countries and Ukraine, because if gas transit stops, the Ukrainian gas distribution system will be completely paralyzed.

All this will happen in a few days.

Azerbaijan, as the President said, is satisfied with what it has. The European market is expanding, and more and more new countries are joining the SGC. The country has rich deposits, and if there are serious intentions on the part of Europe, production can be increased. As long as Europe continues to play the game of completely abandoning fossil fuels, Azerbaijan will not strain too much.

Finally, we note that Europe will not be able to completely abandon oil and gas. America won't let her do that. Trump has already threatened harsh measures if the Europeans do not buy its oil and gas from the United States. However, let them figure it out for themselves.