Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 29 / Trend /
Trend Agency commentator Aygul Tagiyeva
Turkey and Azerbaijan signed the intergovernmental agreement to transit Azerbaijani gas through Turkey. This can lead to the significant progress in implementing the Southern Gas Corridor projects. One of the powerful incentives in the project implementation in this corridor may be a new gas pipeline. The two countries agreed to construct a new gas pipeline.
The Southern Gas 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), and Turkey-Greece-Italy gas pipeline (ITGI).
Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz told media that the new gas pipeline is a good option. However, this is not an alternative to the Nabucco project.
However, the new pipeline may reduce costs to other pipeline projects (such as "Nabucco") destined to export Caspian gas.
The Nabucco consortium plans to construct the first phase of a 2,000 kilometer-gas pipeline, starting at the Turkish border and ending at Baumgarten, Austria. The second phase includes the construction of the rest part of the pipeline on the border between Turkey and Georgia, as well as Turkey and Iraq.
Thus, Baku and Ankara agreed to construct a gas pipeline on Turkish territory. In this case, Nabucco should not construct a gas pipeline to the borders of Turkey and Georgia. This will reduce the total project cost.
The Nabucco project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East to EU countries. The project is worth 7.9 billion euro, with its construction planned to start in 2013 and the first supplies to be commissioned in 2017.
The project's participants include the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and the German RWE.
Baku and Ankara intend to build a new gas pipeline through Turkey to export most of 50 billion cubic meters of gas that Azerbaijan intends to produce by 2025, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said earlier.
The new gas pipeline will deliver Azerbaijani gas to the border of Turkey and Europe. It can be transported via one of the Southern Corridor routes in the future.
On Tuesday in Izmir, Turkey and Azerbaijan signed 15 documents, including an agreement to sell gas to Turkey from the Shah Deniz-2 in 2017, and an agreement on transit of gas from Shah Deniz-2 to Turkey in 2017-2042 via the networks of Turkish Botas State Pipeline Company.
These agreements constitute a complete package of documents for the transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Turkey's border with Greece and Bulgaria. In fact, all conditions have been created for realization of projects of the Southern Gas Corridor, which will connect the Caspian region to Europe.
In late 2011 - early 2012, the partners on Shah Deniz will complete the selection of the pipeline project, which will enable to export Azerbaijani gas to Europe. These projects include ITGI, TAP, Nabucco, and the version proposed by BP, envisaging delivering gas via Turkey to the Balkan countries.