Azerbaijan, Serbia to ink deal on energy co-op

Azerbaijan and Serbia plan to sign the Agreement on Cooperation in the field of energy and mining during the visit of the Serbian delegation to Azerbaijan at the eighth meeting of the Advisory Council of the Southern Gas Corridor, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia and the Minister of Mining and Energy, Prof. Dr. Zorana Mihajlovic told Report.

“The Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Azerbaijan have expressed readiness to sign the Agreement on Cooperation in the field of energy and mining between the two Governments. The signing of this agreement will give a new impetus to further improvement of friendly and economic relations between the two countries. We hope that the Agreement will be signed during the visit of the delegation of the Republic of Serbia to Azerbaijan at the eighth meeting of the Advisory Council of the Southern Gas Corridor,” she said.

Minister Mihajlovic also expressed hope that the Advisory Council will contribute to enabling a larger number of countries interested in diversification of suppliers to join the gas supply from Azerbaijan, and help with further infrastructural development of the countries of southern and southeastern Europe.

She noted that the energy sector and especially green energy are becoming increasingly important in international cooperation: “And we believe that there is room for both Serbia and Azerbaijan to improve their relations in this area and consider opportunities for joint projects.”

The eighth meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council will take place on February 4 in Baku. As in previous years, all companies participating in the Southern Gas Corridor are expected to participate, including SOCAR, BP, TPAO and others, as well as representatives of countries such as Turkey, Georgia, Bulgaria, Italy, the UK, the US, Greece and Albania. Among potential participants are Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia. The arrival of representatives from other countries is not excluded.

The SGC, which includes the development of the Shah Deniz field and a gas pipeline chain originating in Azerbaijan and stretching to southern Italy, was created with the aim of diversifying natural gas supplies to the EU and reducing the number of EU countries with a single source of supply. The last European section of the SGC, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which began commercial deliveries on December 31, 2020, has allowed the supply of Caspian gas to Greece, Bulgaria and southern Italy.