BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.1. If there is a market interest, the European Commission certainly supports projects that could further help diversify gas supplies in the region, Kadri Simson, the EU Commissioner for Energy, said in an exclusive interview with Trend Feb.1.
She was talking about the newly-proposed project by four European countries to boost gas imports from Azerbaijan.
“We are aware that transmission system operators (TSOs) in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia are considering using existing and new infrastructure as a new corridor for importing natural gas from Azerbaijan.
Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe are amongst the most dependent regions in Europe when it comes to gas imports from one single source. At the same time, the diversification of supplies, routes and sources have been significantly improved in the past few years, thanks to the EU infrastructure policy, the realization of Projects of Common interest under the TEN-E, and in some cases financial support through the Connecting Europe Facility and other instruments. Nevertheless, if there is a market interest, the Commission certainly supports projects that could further help diversify gas supplies in the region,” said Simson.
Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia have asked the European Commission to allocate funds for developing infrastructure to get additional natural gas from Azerbaijan.
It is about developing the existing infrastructure, construction of new interconnectors and expanding the capacity of the existing ones. It is important to increase the number of interconnectors in Europe in order to boost gas imports from Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan’s gas exports to Europe began on December 31, 2020 with the commissioning of the Southern Gas Corridor comprising of the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion, the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
Azerbaijan's export of natural gas to European Union market will stand at 11.6 billion cubic meters as of 2023. Total export of natural gas from Azerbaijan this year will be almost 24 billion cubic meters.
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