Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 25
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Nearly 70 percent of the work on the "Shah Deniz-2" project has been finished in Azerbaijan and Georgia within the Southern Gas Corridor, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said.
He made the remarks Apr. 25 at the SOCAR International Practical Conference on "Caspian Basin and Central Asia: Trade, Logistics, Oil Processing and Oil and Chemistry" in Baku.
He said that the work on the project has been considerably accelerated.
"The work on expansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline, oil and gas terminal in Sangachal, construction of compressor stations in Georgia has been completed nearly by 70 percent," said Aliyev. "We also continue to work closely with the governments of European countries on the project, which is important for both us and them."
The minister said that it will be possible to export gas from Iran, Iraq, Israel and Cyprus via the Southern Gas Corridor in the future.
The gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz field's development will be exported to Turkey and to the European markets by means of expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and construction of the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
TANAP project envisages transportation of gas of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field from Georgian-Turkish border to the western borders of Turkey. The initial capacity of TANAP pipeline is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas will be delivered to Turkey and the remaining volume will be supplied to Europe.
The 878 km TAP pipeline will transport Azerbaijani natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II field through the last leg of the Southern Gas Corridor, connecting with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline at the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi and then crossing Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Southern Italy.
The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) is a priority project for the EU. It is designed to transport the Caspian region's gas to Europe through Georgia and Turkey. At the initial stage, the gas to be extracted during the second phase of development at Azerbaijani gas condensate field Shah Deniz is considered to be the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor. At a later stage, other sources may join the project.
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