Baku, Azerbaijan, June 23
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Unlike other suppliers of gas to Europe, Azerbaijan has never used its advantages as a means of political pressure on the EU.
Since Azerbaijan's foreign policy is aimed at establishing good-neighborly relations with other countries, the most important thing for Baku is to reach the world markets.
As is known, currently Europe is the most optimal market for Azerbaijani gas.
Azerbaijan differs from other sellers of gas to Europe, in particular from Russia, by the fact that Baku is able not only to sell, but also to ensure the delivery of gas to the EU.
Soon after Azerbaijan started the implementation of the 'Southern Gas Corridor' project, Russia announced intention to build the 'Turkish stream'.
Some Russian analysts believe that this project is allegedly a serious threat to the future supply of Azerbaijani gas to Europe.
Namely these analysts forecasted that Turkey, which has a 30-percent share in TANAP project (part of the Southern Gas Corridor), will refuse receiving Azerbaijani gas. However, eventually, it turned out to be just the opposite.
It turned out that Ankara is skeptical about the Turkish Stream as distinct from the TANAP project. The fact that Turkey's BOTAS Petroleum Pipeline Corporation will not participate in the construction of the pipeline, proves that this project is quite risky for the Turkish authorities.
If the Turkish authorities were convinced that there are no risks in the implementation of this project, they would have already started the construction of the Turkish Stream.
Despite earlier, Botas did not hide its interest in this Russian project, later the company announced that it would not participate in its implementation.
As all energy projects are primarily energy ones for Azerbaijan, rather than political, there is no need for SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) to fear for the Azerbaijani projects.
Elshad Nasirov, vice president on marketing and investments of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) has recently said that Azerbaijan intends to use the gas transportation capacity in the future as the continuation of the Turkish Stream in Europe to supply additional volumes of gas from its fields.
"Turkish Stream does not compete with Southern Gas Corridor, because our gas volumes have been sold for 25 years," Nasirov said. "The buyers must accept it. The new pipelines are required for the next generation fields in Azerbaijan."
He also said that the situation of the Turkish Stream being built faster than the Southern Gas Corridor will not cause problems.
"Because our customers are obliged to accept our gas by the time TAP will be built," said the representative of SOCAR.
Elshad Nasirov's words reaffirm the fact that the Turkish Stream has never been a threat to the Southern Gas Corridor.
In addition, the Turkish Stream can become a full-fledged project only because of the gas, which will go through the Southern Gas Corridor.
No matter what happens, the Azerbaijani gas will anyway be in all pipelines of Europe.
Edited by CN
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Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
