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SGC to be able to meet some 40-50% of Balkan countries’ gas needs – minister

Oil&Gas Materials 20 September 2018 10:07 (UTC +04:00)
The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) project will be able to meet about 40-50 percent of the needs of the Balkan countries in natural gas, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said Sept. 20 during the 7th International Caspian Energy Forum Baku-2018.
SGC to be able to meet some 40-50% of Balkan countries’ gas needs – minister

Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 20

By Ilkin Shafiyev - Trend:

The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) project will be able to meet about 40-50 percent of the needs of the Balkan countries in natural gas, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said Sept. 20 during the 7th International Caspian Energy Forum Baku-2018.

“Speaking about the strategic significance of the project, it should be taken into account that the project is aimed at Eastern Europe, a sensitive region from the point of view of energy security,” he noted.

“The SGC project will be able to meet up to 30-35 percent of the gas needs in Bulgaria and Greece, and, initially, about 10 percent of the total needs of Italy, and at the second stage it will turn into a gas hub for this country. With the help of interconnectors, the project will be able to meet about 40-50 percent of the needs of the Balkan countries.”

He stressed that in the future, the volumes of gas supplies through the SGC may increase.

In the future, gas will be exported along the SGC not only as part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2 project, but also from other fields, the minister said.

The SGC is one of the priority projects for the EU, and it provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.

On May 29, Baku hosted the launch ceremony of the first phase of the Southern Gas Corridor project, and on June 12, the opening ceremony of TANAP pipeline was held in the Turkish province of Eskisehir with the participation of the presidents of Azerbaijan - Ilham Aliyev, Turkey - Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ukraine - Petro Poroshenko and Serbia - Alexander Vucic.

Thus, the first gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field coming out of the Sangachal terminal expanded for Shah Deniz-2 project and passing through the expanded South Caucasus Gas Pipeline, has already gone through the first segment of the Southern Gas Corridor. The next stage was the commissioning of the TANAP gas pipeline, through which the gas will enter the territory of Turkey and will pass on further to Europe.

The TANAP pipeline has been laid from the Georgian-Turkish border to the Western border of Turkey. The TANAP pipeline together with another – Trans-Adriatic - gas pipeline is part of the "Southern Gas Corridor" project, which provides for the transportation of gas from the Azerbaijani "Shah Deniz" field to Europe.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @IlkinShafiyev

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