Azerbaijan to start gas production at new field in June - Aliyev

BAKU. May 19 (Interfax) - Azerbaijan plans to start gas production at a new field in June, President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Euronews.

"Fortunately, we did our homework with the pipeline infrastructure and also with the upstream. So now the level of production is going up. Very soon, probably in the beginning of next month, we will report about the beginning of gas production from the new field. So it's a win-win situation," Aliyev said, without specifying what field he referred to.

Europe is a strategic market for Azerbaijani gas, Aliyev said.

"We need a premium market, which is Europe. And Europe needs an alternative source of supply, which is Azerbaijan. So we combined our efforts and established a very fruitful cooperation with the European Commission," he said.

Azerbaijan's energy cooperation with Europe particularly accelerated after 2020, when it commissioned the Southern Gas Corridor currently supplying gas to 16 countries, he said.

"In terms of the number of countries to which we supply gas via pipelines, we are number one. The number is growing. Ten members of the European Union are our clients. And in total, 12 countries from Europe are recipients of Azerbaijani gas. The number of countries is growing. The number of requests for us to start cooperation is growing," he said.

Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said previously that Azerbaijan was working to commission four hydrocarbon production projects in 2026 to 2029. This year, first gas is to be produced under a deep gas project at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli block of fields.