EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson is travelling to Baku later this month, Report informs, citing EUobserver.
“We have been working closely together to increase deliveries,” an EU spokesman said.
Before that, the officials of both parties will hold talks in Brussels on July 19.
The draft text, dated 11 July, which could be still subject to changes, is part of the EU efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian gas after the war in Ukraine.
They “aspire” to “bilateral trade of natural gas … of at least 20 billion cubic metres [bcm] of gas annually by 2027, the document says.
The Trans Adriatic Gas Pipeline (TAP), which transports Azerbaijani natural gas to Europe, has reached its maximum capacity over the past few days. This means the supply of 33 million cubic meters of natural gas daily, which averages about 12 billion cubic meters of gas per year. A total of 10.5 billion cubic meters of these volumes will be transported to Italy. The long-term goal is to double the capacity of the pipeline.
The construction of TAP was completed in October 2020. The total length of TAP is 878 km, of which 550 km passes through the northern part of Greece, 215 km through the territory of Albania, 105 km along the bottom of the Adriatic Sea and 8 km through the territory of Italy.
The TAP AG consortium is considering three scenarios for increasing the pipeline capacity: limited – up to 14.4 billion cubic meters, partial – up to 17.1 billion cubic meters and full – up to 20 billion cubic meters per year.
Azerbaijani gas supplies to consumers in Italy, Greece and Bulgaria via TAP began on December 31, 2020.
-Report