ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Oct. 23
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
With the formation of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) in 2020, gas supplies from Turkmenistan to Europe are becoming reality, Trend reports referring to statement by World Bank (WB) expert Alexander Huurdeman at the “Oil and gas of Turkmenistan-2019”, the 24th international exhibition and conference taking place Oct. 22-23 in Ashgabat.
The outlook is optimistic and thanks to the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea, signed in 2018, the SGC has such favorable economic conditions as a capacious European market, gas demand and huge gas resources, the expert said.
The WB has recently provided a loan of $750 million to the Southern Gas Corridor CJSC to finance the construction of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP).
TANAP is designed to supply gas from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey and further to the Greek border, where it will be continued by the Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline (TAP).
Experts believe that SGC will no longer lack financial resources, because, in the light of recent events, its investment attractiveness has increased many times.
Turkey has previously expressed interest in Turkmenistan’s participation in the TANAP project, the Turkish Ambassador to Turkmenistan Mustafa Kapucu told the Turkmen media.
“The TANAP project is very important for strengthening Europe’s energy security, and all the countries through which the gas pipeline will be laid are interested in Turkmenistan as a participant of the SGC project,” the diplomat said.
The opportunity to build a pipeline from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan along the bottom of the Caspian Sea and to supply Turkmen gas to Europe through TANAP will increase the profitability of the project, the ambassador said.
Negotiations on the delivery of Turkmen gas to Europe have been underway since 2011.