BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov.30
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The Southern Gas Corridor is a giant infrastructure project implemented on the initiative and with active participation of Azerbaijan, marking a new era in the development of Azerbaijan’s and region’s oil and gas industry, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
“The Trans Adriatic Pipeline, the last segment of this project, is ready to start commercial operations. It is planned to start commercial supplies of Azerbaijani gas to Europe at the end of 2020 in accordance with the gas sale contracts. The capacity of the pipeline, which will transport 10 billion cubic meters of gas a year to Europe, could be increased to 20 billion cubic meters a year in the future.
“The Southern Gas Corridor project, which became a reality as a result of the thoughtful and far-sighted policy of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, will serve the Azerbaijani people over the coming years and open new opportunities for the country by making an important contribution to economic development. Increasing production will further strengthen Azerbaijan's role as an international gas supplier, resulting in increased revenues from the oil and gas sector.
“Southern Gas Corridor will increase Azerbaijan’s importance not only as an energy exporter, but also as a transit country. It will open new opportunities for the region’s countries to bring their energy resources to world markets and will have a significant impact on security and stability in the region. At the same time, Southern Gas Corridor is a diversification project, which is very important for consumers, producers and transit countries.
“As for Europe, the project, which has been implemented with Azerbaijan’s efforts, will be an important factor in the energy, transport spheres, and in general, in economic and national security of EU countries,” noted the minister.
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