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Nobody can stop Southern Gas Corridor project, SOCAR says

Oil&Gas Materials 26 May 2015 13:41 (UTC +04:00)
The Southern Gas Corridor is not just a set of signed agreements, it’s about billions of dollars already being invested, and to stop such a project is impossible.
Nobody can stop Southern Gas Corridor project, SOCAR says

Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

By Aygun Badalova - Trend:

The Southern Gas Corridor is not just a set of signed agreements, it's about billions of dollars already being invested, and to stop such a project is impossible, Vitaliy Baylarbayov, Deputy Vice President for Investments and Marketing at SOCAR said in an interview to EurActiv.

"We already committed to investing in the offshore Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea and in the pipelines on the territory of Azerbaijan and Georgia 12 billion dollars," Baylarbayov said. "These are contractual obligations already materialised. This is money that is already in use. 30 percent of the work that needs to be completed in the Caspian, in Azerbaijan and in Georgia is already done."

"To stop such a project is impossible, we cannot stop it. Our partners cannot stop it, nobody can stop it - it's impossible. Commercially this is unfeasible," he added.

Baylarbayov said that the Southern Gas Corridor continues to develop dynamically, and the future of this corridor is interesting enough and is linked to the diversification of gas sources.

"New sources of gas are the Absheron offshore gas field, where the investors are Total and Gaz de France. And Azerbaijani fields Inam and Babek will have investors who are not yet determined. This is diversification at the scale of Azerbaijan. It could add at least an additional 10 billion of cubic meters of gas per year to the Corridor," he said.

He also added that diversification will also come from other countries.

"Gas from Central Asia is more and more frequently mentioned as the next major source of diversification of supplies through the Southern Gas Corridor. But in this case, it would be more precise to speak about further expansion of the capacity of the Southern Gas Corridor," he said.

The Southern Gas Corridor project envisages 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 the 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 project. 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).

Around six billion cubic meters of the total volume of gas within the Shah Deniz-2 project will be delivered to Turkey and 10 billion cubic meters to Europe per year.

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

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