Azerbaijan, Baku, June 3 /Trend, A. Badalova /
The ITGI pipeline project traversing Turkey, Greece and Italy is the most competitive project for Azerbaijani gas supplues to Europe, International Gas Infrastructure head at the Italian Edison company Elio Ruggeri said at the Seventeenth International Caspian Oil and Gas Exhibition and Conference.
He said the ITGI project is ready to bring Azerbaijani gas to European markets.
"We are ready to buy Azerbaijani gas, and are ready to supply this gas to European markets," Ruggeri said.
According to Ruggeri, gas is needed to implement the South Corridor project. He said Azerbaijan is the only potential gas supplier to Europe.
Ruggeri stressed that several other countries also have immense energy resources, but they need more time to supply the gas.
In terms of the ITGI project, Ruggeri said it is the best way to ensure the diversification of gas supplies to European markets.
According to Ruggeri, the ITGI project will be ready for launch by 2015 and will facilitate gas supplies from the Shah Deniz Field.
"We are doing everything we can to put the project into operation in 2015," Ruggeri said.
According to the ITGI official, if the project is commissioned in 2016 in the second stage of Shah Deniz's development, ITGI activities will be slowed.
The ITGI transport corridor will transport Azerbaijani gas to Greece and Italy and includes updated Turkish pipeline infrastructure and also ITG projects such as the Turkey-Greece junction pipeline and IGI. The Greece-Italy junction pipeline is a missing link of the Turkey-Greece-Italy transport corridor, which enables gas transports from the Caspian region and Middle East to Italy and Western Europe via Turkey and Greece. The ITGI's designed carrying capacity is 12 billion cubic meters per year.
When operational, the ITGI will stretch from Azerbaijan across Georgia via the existing Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum Pipeline to Turkey, Greece and Italy across the Ionian Sea.