Ankara Expects Progress in March on Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey-Bulgaria Energy Corridor
Ankara expects to take the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey-Bulgaria renewable energy corridor project to the next stage in early March, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.
“We have a green corridor project involving four countries that, among other things, calls for exporting electricity to Turkey and Europe, including electricity produced in Nakhchevan from renewable sources. The first documents have already been signed. We expect to take this project to the next stage at a meeting on the Southern Gas Corridor at the beginning of March,” Bayraktar said in response to questions from reporters in Istanbul on Friday.
He also commented on the possibility of Armenia participating in the project.
“Can Armenia become a part of this process? Of course it can. We support normalization, including normalization of economic relations. It is also possible to develop cooperation in the energy sector. There are good opportunities here,” Bayraktar said.
He said Azerbaijan is a very important energy partner for Turkey.
“In Turkey investment is channelled into energy along many avenues and we are jointly implementing a number of projects and initiatives. Natural gas is extremely important to us, since it is used in production of electricity, in homes and industry. Azerbaijan and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) have remained key suppliers for us for many years, pipelines operate between our countries. The signed agreement on supplies of 33 billion cubic meters of gas will ensure the continuation of these relations and trade after 2030,” Bayraktar said.
Turkey is developing its own gas production and carrying out major work in the Black Sea, but “the country’s needs are still great,” the minister said. “In the next 15 years some of this demand will be covered by supplies from Azerbaijan under this agreement. This is very important,” he said.
Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a 15-year agreement on supplies of 33 bcm of gas from the Absheron field in Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian Sea, at a rate of 2.25 bcm per year starting in 2029 and continuing into the 2040s. The gas will be supplied through the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline.
Azerbaijan also has plans to carry out renewable energy projects with combined capacity of 6.7 GW by 2030, of which 2.7 GW are intended for Azerbaijan’s energy system and 4 GW for export through the Caspian-Black Sea-Europe green energy corridor via an underwater HVDC line. There are plans to export another 1 GW along the Azerbaijan-Turkey-Europe corridor through Nakhchevan.
Baku’s priorities also include creating a Trans-Caspian green energy corridor between Central Asia and Azerbaijan by laying an HVDC line, and the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey-Bulgaria energy corridor. The energy ministers of these four countries signed a memorandum on cooperation in April 2025, kicking off the project to build the new energy corridor.
