BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 14. Azerbaijan sees
broad potential to expand energy cooperation with the Czech
Republic beyond crude oil supplies, including natural gas and
renewables, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan on special
assignments Elchin Amirbayov said in an interview with Czech media,
Trend reports.
“It would be fair to say that about one-third of the oil which
is used by the Czech Republic comes from Azerbaijan. This
cooperation could be expanded to other areas. It could also cover
natural gas,” he said.
According to Amirbayov, Azerbaijan has significantly diversified
its gas export geography in recent years.
“Today, Azerbaijan is one of the leading countries in the world
in terms of the number of countries recipients of natural gas in
different regions. Today, we export natural gas to 16 nations in
the world, 10 of which are members of the European Union. Most
recently, Austria and Germany joined that list,” he noted.
He also outlined perspectives for cooperation in the field of
green energy.
“We also could expand the energy portfolio to cover renewable
sources of energy, because Azerbaijan has an enormous potential in
solar and wind energy and electricity. There are some projects that
we are discussing with some members of the European Union and
regional countries on how to diversify the energy sources to
Europe,” Amirbayov said.
At the same time, he stressed that further expansion of gas
supplies will require infrastructure upgrades and investment.
“In order for us to increase the number of volumes of gas to new
countries, of course, we need some additional investment in the
upstream development, but also in the expansion of the transmission
capacity of the existing infrastructure. Because the southern gas
corridor through which we are exporting our natural gas to Europe
is fully booked already. We need some additional capacity, and for
that, the EU and Azerbaijan need to work together,” he added.