Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 17 / Trend A.Akhundov /
The Southern Corridor would be - after the Northern Corridor from Norway, the Eastern corridor from Russia, the Mediterranean Corridor from Africa and besides LNG - the fourth big axis for diversification of gas supplies in Europe. The European Union believes diversification of sources generally improves competition and thus contributes to market development.
The report "Priorities for Energy Infrastructure - 2020" posted Wednesday on the official website of the EU, highlights the significant role of the availability of multiple routes of gas supplies " as seen also in the January 2009 gas crisis, the most severely affected countries were those relying on one single import sources. "
The implementation of the Southern Corridor requires close co-operation between several Member States and at European level, as no country individually requires the incremental gas volumes (new gas) sufficient to underpin the investment in pipeline infrastructure.
"Therefore, the European Union must act to promote diversification and provide for the public good of security of supply by bringing Member States and companies together in order to reach a critical mass. This is the underlying principle for the EU Southern Gas Corridor strategy," the report reads.
The aim of the Southern Corridor is to directly link the EU gas market to the largest deposit of
gas in the world (the Caspian / Middle East basin) estimated at 90.6 trillion cubic meters.
"The key potential individual supplier states are Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iraq; yet, if
Political conditions permit, supplies from other countries in the region could represent a further significant supply source for the EU. The key transit state is Turkey, with other transit routes being through the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean," the report reads.
The strategic objective of the corridor is to achieve a supply route to the EU of roughly 10-20% of EU gas demand by 2020, equivalent roughly to 45-90 billion cubic meters of gas per year (bcma).