BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 20. Italy is negotiating with several countries, including the United States, Azerbaijan, and Algeria, to secure gas supplies amid the suspension of gas deliveries from Qatar due to the situation in the Middle East, Italy’s Minister of Energy, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said, speaking at an event in Milan, TurkicWorld reports.
"The very fact that Qatar's LNG plant that had been shut down was also bombed had a devastating impact on prices," he noted.
Earlier, Qatar declared force majeure on gas supplies, notifying Edison that it would be unable to fulfill its contractual obligations regarding deliveries for April.
Italy is currently the largest buyer of gas from Azerbaijan, which is supplied to Europe via the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). This pipeline is the European segment of the Southern Gas Corridor, connecting Caspian fields with European markets and ensuring diversification of the continent’s energy supplies.
The annual capacity of TAP is 10 billion cubic meters, with the possibility of increasing it to 20 billion cubic meters.
From January 1, 2026, TAP provided additional long-term capacity under a new Gas Transportation Agreement (GTA).
In 2025, Azerbaijan supplied 9.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Italy, accounting for 38% of the country’s total exports.
Last year, Azerbaijan produced 51.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas, including 14.1 bcm from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields, 27.9 bcm from Shah Deniz, 1.6 bcm from the Absheron field, and 7.9 bcm by SOCAR.
During this period, gas exports totaled 25.2 billion cubic meters: 12.8 bcm to Europe, 9.6 bcm to Türkiye (including 5.6 bcm via TANAP), 2.3 bcm to Georgia, and 0.5 bcm to Syria.
