Azerbaijan-Syria gas agreement mere political gesture: Analyst
A senior Iranian energy analyst says a gas supply agreement signed between Azerbaijan and Syria is a mere political gesture and has little chance of materializing.
Reza Noshadi said on Tuesday that the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in Baku over the weekend for the supply of natural gas from Azerbaijan to Syria is simply a show of political support for Syria’s new establishment.
Noshadi, who once served as an Iranian deputy oil minister, said Syria has almost no infrastructure, including pipelines and other installations, to receive gas from Azerbaijan through Turkey.
“On the potential (gas) pipeline from Azerbaijan to Syria, we should currently see it as a political gesture and a show-off,” he told the ILNA news agency.
The analyst said that no details have been released about the gas supply MoU signed between Azerbaijan and Syria, including what supply volumes are and how and when the project will be implemented.
“A gas supply project needs a huge initial investment, which should be declared from which source it will come,” said Noshadi.
He said that Azerbaijan has plans to increase gas production to 60 billion cubic meters per year by 2027 to be able to increase exports, especially to European customers, adding that the country will also face a growing domestic demand for energy in the upcoming years.
Azerbaijani state news agency AZERTAC said on Saturday that the chairman of its state oil company SOCAR, Mikayil Jabbarov, and Syrian Energy Minister Mohammed al-Bashir had signed an MoU for natural gas supply from Azerbaijan to Syria.
The agreement was signed on the sidelines of a visit to Baku by Syria’s former rebel leader and current president, Ahmad Al-Sharaa.
The signing came several weeks after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a main supporter of Syria’s new government, quoted his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, as saying that Azerbaijan is “ready to provide all kinds of support on natural gas to Syria.”
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