Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced that gas flows from Azerbaijan to Serbia have been suspended, with no clear timeline for their resumption.
In 2023, Serbia, which consumes over 3 billion cubic meters of gas annually, signed an agreement with Azerbaijan to purchase 400 million cubic meters of natural gas per year starting in 2024. President Vučić speculated that the suspension of gas deliveries could last up to two months, though Azerbaijani authorities have denied this, stating that deliveries will resume soon.
Gas deliveries to Serbia are routed through Bulgaria, where the state-owned gas company Bulgargaz confirmed that it had been informed of the interruption in Azeri gas supplies. To mitigate the disruption, Bulgargaz secured replacement volumes from Turkey’s BOTAS. The company also noted that the suspension did not result in additional costs for procuring replacement natural gas and had no impact on the regional gas market.
The supply interruption is reportedly due to an issue at BP’s Alpha platform in the Shah Deniz gas field, located offshore in the Caspian Sea. BP confirmed a technical problem in the subsea condensate export line that connects the Shah Deniz Alpha platform to the Sangachal terminal.
The Sangachal Terminal, located 45 kilometers south of Baku on the Caspian Sea coast, is a key industrial complex that includes both a natural gas processing plant and an oil production facility. BP’s statement clarified that, for operational reasons, production and export activities from the Shah Deniz Alpha platform have been suspended, and the platform has been safely shut down. All personnel on the platform are reported to be safe, and there has been no environmental impact. The offshore facilities, including the Shah Deniz Alpha platform and pipeline, remain secure.
