President Ilham Aliyev: "Azerbaijan does not intend to compete with anyone in gas supplies to Europe."

Azerbaijan has very large gas reserves - currently country's proven gas reserves amount to 2.6 trillion cubic meters, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at a press conference in Baku, answering a question of the Latvian Independent Television's reporter the about Azerbaijani gas supplies to European markets.

According to President Aliyev, this figure can increase, as larger gas reserves are expected in the new discovered fields.
"Thus, Azerbaijan should become a very important gas exporting country for many years, decades to come. Of course, to achieve it, different diversified gas pipelines are needed," he noted.

The President noted that Azerbaijan transports its gas to all neighboring countries except Armenia, adding that new opportunities should be created in the future to enter the European markets.

"I believe that projects implemented by Azerbaijan will be successful. One of such projects, the most memorable one in recent years, is the TANAP project, which has been initiated by Azerbaijan," Ilham Aliyev said.

President Ilham Aliyev said that these are the principles of free, fair competition and market economy.

He added that the European market is liberal, is regulated by laws, and is very attractive for Azerbaijan.

"In this issue the interests of both Europe and Azerbaijan coincide, that is why we consider our relationship as a strategic partnership in the energy sector. That is, here a supplier country is Azerbaijan, transit countries are Georgia and Turkey, while consumer countries are members of the European Union," the President explained.