Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 10 / Trend A. Badalova /
Turkey is an important player in ensuring Europe's energy security thanks to the country's geographical position, Hurriyer daily news quotes European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger as saying.
"Looking at the map, we can see that Turkey plays a significant role in energy security," Oethinger said.
Oethinger with the EU Commissioner for enlargement and European neighborhood policy Stefan Füle visited Istanbul this week, where they held a meeting with Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız and the country's EU minister Egemen Bagıs.
Oettinger said one of the topics of discussions were "plans for increasing the inter-consecutiveness of Turkey with the region's countries and Turkey's neighbors to compensate the need in case of a problem with any other supplier."
He stressed that Turkey remains "a strong candidate" for transfer of the Caspian energy resources to Europe.
According to Füle, the EU aims to strengthen and deepen the relations with Turkey in energy issues.
The discussions also focused on the Southern Gas Corridor projects, which are the EU priorities.
Yildiz said Turkey has taken concrete steps towards implementation of the projects for gas supply to Europe by signing gas agreements with Azerbaijan in October, 2011.
The Southern Gas Corridor projects aims to diversify energy supply routes and sources and, therefore, increasing energy security of the European countries.
Gas, which will be produces during the second stage of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field development, is considered as the main supply source for these projects.
On Oct. 1, Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Nabucco and ITGI projects submitted the final proposals to the Azerbaijani side, which will review them in accordance with the previously announced criteria. The decision on the preferable transportation route is expected to be made in the first quarter of 2012.Azerbaijan plans to export 10 billion cubic metres of gas within the Shah Deniz-2 project.