Ukraine may transport genuine Azerbaijani gas, not Russian gas in disguise, to Europe

According to Zelenskyy, the issue of gas transit was discussed with Azerbaijani President Aliyev at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The talks focused on using Ukrainian infrastructure to transport Azerbaijani gas if Europe needs it.

Since there have been many questions about what this means, as the scheme involving Azerbaijani gas was recently rejected by Ukraine, here's an explanation:

The discussion likely refers to the supply of genuine Azerbaijani gas (not Russian gas disguised as Azerbaijani) from the Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea, traveling through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey to Bulgaria, and then via reverse flow through the Trans-Balkan pipeline to Romania and Ukraine, reaching Moldova.

This way, Moldova can be helped, but not the separatist stronghold in Tiraspol. The figures regarding the volumes of Azerbaijani gas supposedly available for export to Europe refer to the distant future. The surplus currently available is about a couple of billion cubic meters, which would be enough for Moldova.

One more thing: after the destruction of an Azerbaijani plane by Russian air defense, it’s unlikely that Putin will manage to convince Aliyev to disguise Gazprom's gas as gas from Azerbaijan's SOCAR.

Source

About the author. Mykhailo Gonchar, expert in international energy and security relations.

The editors don't always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.