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Southern Gas Corridor’s expansion to secure great diversification of energy supplies to EU

Oil&Gas Materials 9 September 2022 13:00 (UTC +04:00)
Laman Zeynalova
Laman Zeynalova
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 9. Considering the present EU gas situation and outlook and the level of support provided by the EU and Azerbaijan to the expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor, we are confident that the project will contribute to deepen bilateral energy relations and to secure great diversification of energy supplies, creating opportunities for all partners involved as Azerbaijan’s energy will have greater access to the EU market, an EU official told Trend.

“The EU has long supported this project. The first phase of the Southern Gas Corridor benefitted from a €27.1 million contribution from the EU budget for grants supporting studies related to Projects of Common Interest. Furthermore, the EIB and EBRD provided loans amounting to €958 million and €1500 million respectively,” said the official.

The EU official noted that the new MoU underpins the aspiration of both the EU and Azerbaijan to support bilateral trade of natural gas via the Southern Gas Corridor of at least 20 billion cubic metres of gas annually by 2027 in accordance with commercial viability and market demand, up from 8.1 billion cubic metres in 2021.

“This MoU signals to EU economic operators that Azerbaijan is an important energy partner. Our REPowerEU plan, adopted by the European Commission on 18 May, also recognised that the expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor to 20 billion cubic metres per year for the Trans Adriatic Pipeline section will play a major role to secure gas supply for Europe. In terms of further support, two projects enabling increased flows from the South to the North of Italy and therefore necessary for the expansion of TAP capacity, namely the Adriatica Pipeline and the Mattagiola-Massafra projects, are included in the current list of Projects of Common Interest and eligible to apply for funding from the Connecting Europe Facility.”

The supply of Azerbaijani gas to Europe through the Southern Gas Corridor began on December 31, 2020. Azerbaijan exported its natural gas to the European market through pipelines for the first time in history.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which is the European part of the Southern Gas Corridor, annually supplies eight billion cubic meters of gas to Italy and one billion cubic meters of gas to Greece and Bulgaria.

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