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New geopolitical context confirms Southern Gas Corridor's added value

Oil&Gas Materials 9 February 2015 17:27 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 9

By Aygun Badalova - Trend:

The new geopolitical context further confirms the potential added value of the Southern Gas Corridor project, the European Commission's spokesperson told Trend.

"The Southern Gas Corridor's role is very important as it brings gas to EU markets from a new source, namely the Caspian region, via a new supply route," the spokesperson said, adding that it is a big undertaking which has been in preparation for a while.

The Southern Gas Corridor project envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe. This large project aims at diversifying the routes and sources of energy supply that will enhance energy security of Europe. The Southern Gas Corridor project will ensure Caspian gas supply to the European markets for the first time in history.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the second phase of development of Azerbaijani gas condensate Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. At a later stage, other sources may join the project.

The gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of the 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).

The European Commission's spokesperson said that for the Commission it is now a top priority to discuss with respective EU Member States from Central East and South East Europe how to better integrate the region into the European gas market and diversifying gas suppliers, sources and routes.

"In order to address and advance the different security of gas supply related issues, in particular diversification of gas supply, in the Central European and Southern European region, the European Commission has initiated a regional High Level Group to carry out an analysis and come up with an action plan," the spokesperson said.

At the same time, according to the spokesperson, the Commission's services will analyse Gazprom's plan on the new Turkish Stream project with the regard to its economic viability as well as regulatory and l In December, 2014, Gazprom and Turkey's BOTAS state pipeline company signed a memorandum of understanding on construction of an offshore gas pipeline across the Black Sea towards Turkey with the annual capacity of 63 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

Under this agreement, it is planned to supply 14 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey and the remaining part - nearly 50 billion cubic meters of gas - to the Turkish-Greek border.

Russia's new gas plans came after the country's cancellation the South Stream gas pipeline project, which was designed to run through the Black Sea to the South and Central Europe, bypassing Ukraine, in order to diversify the natural gas export routes.

Aygun Badalova is Trend Agency's staff journalist, follow her on Twitter:@AygunBadalova

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