Azerbaijan, Baku, April 18 / Trend, A. Badalova /
The role of hydrocarbons of the Caspian region in Europe's energy security will grow, former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and former EU Council President Mirek Topolanek said during the Fifth Caspian Oil and Gas Trading and Transportation Conference in Baku.
"Further instability in North Africa will increase the importance of the Caspian and Central Asian regions for Europe's energy security," Topolanek said.
He said that despite the development of alternative energy sources, it is obvious that the hydrocarbon reserves in the foreseeable future will remain the main energy sources.
Europe's strongest competitor in obtaining the Caspian resources is China, Topolanek said.
He said Europe has many methods of attracting countries from the Caspian region to supply hydrocarbons into Europe.
Primarily, this opens opportunities for Azerbaijan not only to diversify its hydrocarbons export routes, but also to double its export revenues, he said.
Commenting on the Nabucco pipeline project designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU, Topolanek said that there are sufficient volumes of raw materials - gas produced within the second phase of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field and from the Turkmen fields for the first phase of its implementation.
He said that the EU should expand cooperation with the Caspian region and Central Asian countries, as well as launch strategy of individual approach to each state for the successful implementation of the "Southern Corridor" project.
Europe will be the biggest consumer of the Caspian hydrocarbons, Topolanek said.
The Southern Corridor is a priority EU energy project diversifying energy supply routes and sources and increasing EU energy security. The Southern Corridor includes the Nabucco gas pipeline, Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), White Stream and ITGI (Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline).
The conference is organized by Confidence Energy jointly the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy.
Trend Agency provides media support for this conference.
