Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 15
By Ilkin Shafiyev – Trend:
Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea, signed during the 5th summit of the heads of the Caspian states, may become an additional step to increasing gas exports through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Deputy Director of the International Energy Policy and Diplomacy Institute of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations Igbal Guliyev told Trend Aug. 15.
“Six more agreements were signed during the summit in the Kazakh city Aktau, including the agreements on transportation, on cooperation in trade and economy, and on prevention of incidents at sea,” Guliyev said. “Against the backdrop of progress in cooperation plans regarding the Caspian region, Turkmenistan pins hopes on the possibility of building a Trans-Caspian gas pipeline along the bottom of the Caspian Sea to the coast of Azerbaijan with further connection to the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), the continuation of which is TAP.”
Connecting new suppliers to the Southern Gas Corridor and plans to increase throughput remain on the agenda, he said.
"The Caspian countries are potential suppliers of natural gas with the use of the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline system. In the near future, the interest of different countries in TAP will only increase," the expert said.
“We believe that in the near future we will be able to eliminate all artificial and natural barriers to the construction of TAP's Italian section,” Guliyev added. "TAP can be assessed as a geo-economically efficient route that allows European countries to diversify supplies of natural gas.”
“I would like to remind that US President Donald Trump spoke in support of TAP as an important element of the Southern Gas Corridor.”
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