After Baku’s offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, France supports Armenia, but is embarrassed because Azerbaijan is one of the European Union’s gas suppliers.
Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna is visiting Armenia on Tuesday October 3, after Azerbaijan’s offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, this Azerbaijani region populated by Armenians. France is trying to support Armenia in this conflict, but it is hampered because, like the entire European Union, it maintains commercial relations with Azerbaijan, which is one of its gas suppliers.
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Azerbaijan has significant hydrocarbon reserves. The gas comes from the Shah Deniz field, southeast of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. This deposit contains 100 billion cubic meters of gas. It is managed by a consortium of companies including the British BP, Socar, the Azerbaijani national company, and Lukoil, the main Russian oil company.
3,500 kilometers of gas pipeline to transport gas to Europe
The gas pipeline is in fact made up of three gas pipelines one after the other. The first, built in the 1960s, connects Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The second built in the 1990s crosses Turkey. Finally, the TAP for Transadriatic pipeline, the most recent, built between 2018 and 2022, connects to the TAP on the Greek border and goes to Italy passing under the sea. To build this entire route, it was necessary to spend 40 billion euros which were invested by different countries: Azerbaijan, of course, but also Greece, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, as well as private companies like BP.
Baku gas would represent 2% of European consumption
The European Union is less dependent on Azerbaijani gas than on Russian gas, according to natural gas economist Anna Créti. Today, according to her, Baku gas represents 2% of European energy consumption. Azerbaijan is therefore an essential but second-line supplier, like Algeria for example. Until now, the EU had preferred to obtain supplies from Russia because it considered Azerbaijan to be an unstable country, in particular because of its tensions with Armenia. And because Baku is a smaller gas producer than Moscow.
During the war in Ukraine, the EU signed an agreement with Azerbaijan
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, went to Baku last year to sign an agreement to double Azerbaijani gas deliveries by 2027. However, according to Anna Créti, the EU could completely do without Baku gas. But to sever commercial relations with the country would require a decision at the level of European states, and not just gas companies.