Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 4
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Amid the recent news about the lifting of West's sanctions on Iran, a question emerges about the prospects of openly selling Iran's resources, particularly, its gas, in the markets in Europe.
If the sanctions are lifted, Iran will be able to freely sell its gas to the European markets. Therefore, the Islamic Republic is seeking more acceptable routes for bringing its gas to them.
From this point of view, the Southern Gas Corridor, a project initiated by Azerbaijan, is extremely suitable for these purposes. Azerbaijan, in fact, is the only option for supplying Iran's gas.
A theoretically possible route for direct deliveries of the Iranian gas to Europe runs through Turkey. But, there is simply no appropriate infrastructure for that. Iran has recently said it could transport gas from Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to Europe through Turkey. However, much has changed in a short time.
Laying a foundation for the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), the start of works, and, most importantly, the financing of the pipeline's construction, showed Tehran how serious is the intent of Azerbaijan and Turkey to realize the Southern Gas Corridor.
Rovnag Abdullayev, the president of Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR, said April 4 that the company has some attractive offers for the sale of a stake in TANAP, adding that the pipeline has no alternatives in bringing Iran's gas to the European markets.
It is worth recalling that the Iranian company, NICO, holds a 10-percent stake in the project of development of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas and condensate field.
Aside from that, a pipeline has been constructed from Azerbaijan to Iran, through which Azerbaijan supplies gas to its southern neighbor.
This corridor can also be used to send Iran's gas to Azerbaijan with its further transportation to Europe.
In such case, it will be profitable and convenient for Iran itself to join the Southern Gas Corridor. The country can do this through the acquisition of a stake in TANAP. And given the opportunities to expand TANAP's capacity from 16 to 31 billion cubic meters, the Iranian gas would not "take the place" of the Azerbaijani gas.
Thus, Tehran today certainly understands that Azerbaijan is the only way for its gas to go to Europe, and one can't rule out that Iran will in soon express open interest in participation in TANAP.
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Maksim Tsurkov is Trend Agency's staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
