ROME: Italy has significantly boosted its natural gas imports from Azerbaijan, with a notable increase of nearly 12 percent year-on-year, according to recent figures released by Eurostat.

According to Trend News Agency, the data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, highlighted that in July 2024, Italy imported over 832 million cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan. This marked a rise from the 743.2 million cubic meters recorded in July 2023. The value of these imports also saw a significant increase, reaching 316.8 million euros, up by 22 percent from 259.4 million euros during the same period the previous year.

From January to July 2024, Italy’s imports of Azerbaijani gas totaled 5.7 billion cubic meters, with a value of 1.96 billion euros. This compares to 5.3 billion cubic meters during the same period in 2023, though the previous year’s imports had a higher value of over 3 billion euros.

In the entirety of 2023, Italy imported a total of 9.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas fro
m Azerbaijan, which was valued at 4.97 billion euros. Azerbaijan began exporting gas to Europe on December 31, 2020, through the Southern Gas Corridor. This corridor transports gas from the Caspian Sea region to Europe via Georgia and Trkiye. In July 2022, Azerbaijan and the European Union agreed to double gas supplies through this corridor, aiming to increase volumes from 10 billion cubic meters to 20 billion cubic meters by 2027.