Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 14
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
The importance of Southern Gas Corridor project, initiated by Azerbaijan and initially envisaging the Caspian gas supplies to Europe today is not realized only by people who are not well-informed and have no interest in the issue.
The significance of the project has been recently stressed as part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Baku.
In his statement for the press, Netanyahu openly pointed to the possibility of using the Southern Gas Corridor for Israeli gas export to Europe as well.
"We are talking about Israeli gas supply via a large pipeline from Azerbaijan to Turkey, which is being constructed,” Netanyahu added. “Of course, this direction can strengthen the economy of both countries. I think that it will become an even more important merit. Energy is just one of the areas, in which we closely work."
Why is it so important? While working on several different segments of the project in different countries, Azerbaijan is constructing vast and efficient infrastructure to provide Europe with gas and not only with its own.
The project is being implemented in such a way that it will be possible to supply gas from Turkmenistan, Iran, Iraq, Cyprus via a system of pipelines and shunt pipes. And Israel also voiced its particular interest in this project.
How is this possible? Israel can export the gas produced by it to Europe through the Turkish segment of the Southern Gas Corridor project via the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP). Israel has huge reserves of gas and in the future, this figure could reach 2.5 trillion cubic meters. Israeli gas through the gas pipeline system will go to TANAP, and from there to TAP (Trans Adriatic Pipeline), and then delivered to customers.
Netanyahu himself said in 2013 that Israel intends to supply 40 percent of natural gas to the world market from fields being commissioned on the shelf of the Mediterranean Sea. However, Israel still needs to build the infrastructure in the form of a pipeline to Turkey.
Will TANAP have the necessary capacity? Within the first stage of the TANAP project, the pipeline will pump 16 billion cubic meters of gas annually. However, the project is being constructed in such a way that it will be possible to double its capacities in the future. TANAP’s capacity may reach 31 billion cubic meters of gas and TAP’s capacity may amount to 20 billion cubic meters of gas, which solves the capacity problem.
Israel has long been intensively seeking ways to export its gas to Europe, which agreed to buy Israeli gas within the framework of diversification of the supply sources.
Thus, the Southern Gas Corridor project has once again demonstrated its importance for a large number of countries and entire regions.