The German SEFE has signed a 10-year gas supply contract with the Azerbaijani state-owned company Socar. The first cubic meters are expected this year. The funds received will also be invested in increasing the capacity of the Southern Gas Corridor to Europe.
"Annual volumes will gradually increase — up to 1.5 billion per year. This partnership will support investments in production and infrastructure, including gas compressor stations, increasing the amount of pipeline gas entering Europe," SEFE said in a statement.
Previously, the company was owned by Gazprom under the name Gazprom Germania, but in the spring of 2022, the German government nationalized one of the largest gas importers in the country.
The head of SEFE, Egbert Lage, said that the company is creating a new route for significant volumes of gas to Europe. It is not known whether the company will import gas to Germany itself. It is known that SEFE will be able to receive Caspian gas only through Turkey, Greece and Italy, where the Southern Gas Corridor runs, and it is cheaper to sell fuel in these or neighboring countries.
According to SEFE, Socar will receive funds and use them for new compressor stations, which are necessary for the Southern Gas Corridor to increase capacity to Europe to 20 billion cubic meters per year. Now it serves up to 13 billion cubic meters and in Baku has repeatedly stated that investments are needed to increase supplies to Europe.
President Ilham Aliyev said the other day that the export of Caspian gas is planned to increase by 8 billion cubic meters per year until 2030.
The development of the Absheron field is the nearest opportunity to increase exports from Azerbaijan. TotalEnergies received the first gas at Absheron in July 2023. The first phase involves the production of 1.5 billion cubic meters per year. Now the French company has announced the start of the second phase, which provides for an increase in production by another 3 billion cubic meters.
"We are implementing underwater development with the drilling of three or four more wells and the construction of a 140-kilometer pipeline to Sangachala. A new factory will be built there, next to the terminal. The project will be based on a multiphase pipeline in which gas and condensate are transported together. This makes it possible to use a pipeline with reduced thermal insulation, which will allow us to almost halve the cost of building the pipeline," Chairman of Totalenergy Azerbaijan Emmanuel de Guillebon said at the 30th Baku Energy Forum.
As EADaily reported, the German SEFE continues to import Russian gas under a contract with Yamal LNG, inherited from Gazprom.
"Imports of Russian LNG to the EU in 2024 reached record levels. Imports increased by 19.3% compared to the previous year. The central role was played by the German state-owned company SEFE, which acted as the buyer of 58 cargoes with a total volume of 4.1 million tons (5.6 billion cubic meters)," the environmental organization Deutsche Umwelthilfe reported. She noted that there has been a significant increase, since in 2023 SEFE received from Russia has 12 cargoes with a volume of 880 thousand tons (1.2 billion cubic meters).