BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 12
Trend:
The cost of the project, initially was planned to be $44.6 billion, but due to efficiency in management and proper planning the cost was reduced to 33 billion US dollars, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said making a speech at the 7th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council held in the format of a video conference, Trend reports.
“This is also a remarkable achievement. Usually the construction project's cost does not decrease. It usually increases during the time of implementation. And also, I would like to say that Azerbaijan made a substantial commitment at the amount of $10 billion and we participate in all four segments of the Southern Gas Corridor, including Shah Deniz, South Caucasus pipeline, TANAP and TAP,” the head of state said.
“So, all this is a reflection of our team work. I would like to once again underline the importance of the joint declaration which the then President of the European Commission Mr. Barroso and myself signed in Baku ten years ago. Joint declaration on the Southern Gas Corridor really was a remarkable event. But, that declaration was signed based on already achieved progress, because Azerbaijan started to work actively with leading international energy companies, back in 1994 when Contract of the Century was signed. That actually was the first very important step in implementation of our energy strategy. Just to remind our partners about major milestones, I would like to say that 1994 can be really considered as a starting point of all our mega projects,” Azerbaijani president said.
“In 1996, Azerbaijan and consortium of international energy companies signed an agreement on Shah Deniz field which today is so far the only resource based for the Southern Gas Corridor. But I am sure that there will be more gas from other fields. In 1997, the first oil from the Caspian Sea produced by international companies became a reality and actually Azerbaijan was the first country to invite international energy companies to operate in the Caspian Sea,” the head of state said.
“Then in 1999, we inaugurated the oil pipeline from Baku to Georgian Sea port of Supsa which was important from point of view of future investments, because before that we did not have access to the world markets. Azerbaijan is a landlocked country. Therefore, we needed pipelines of 1999 which actually made big difference. Then we started to plan the construction of the major oil pipeline which was inaugurated in 2006, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan. That was a connection of the Caspian Sea with the Mediterranean Sea. So, already we started to diversify the roots of supply. And then, in 2007, we completed the gas pipeline from Azerbaijan to Georgia and Turkey. That was also for the first time since independence, Azerbaijan started to supply natural gas to the neighboring countries,” President Aliyev said.
“And of course, 2012, just a year after the declaration signed with the European Union, we signed an agreement on construction of TANAP between Azerbaijan and Turkey. And that was a really very important milestone in implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project. And after that of course, implementation of TANAP - 2018 and TAP – 2020,” the head of state said.