Southern Gas Corridor to be completed by 2020: Azerbaijan president

BAKU – Anadolu Agency

AA Photo

Azerbaijan aims to finalize the Southern Gas Corridor by 2020, Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev has said.

The Southern Gas Corridor includes the South Caucasus Pipeline, Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).      

Speaking at “On the Road to Price Stability? The return of OPEC and the Geopolitics of Oil” roundtable as part of the Munich Security Conference, Aliyev said Azerbaijan played an important role in the energy security of the region.      

He said the country would also play an important role in Europe’s energy security with natural gas megaprojects.      

Highlighting that Azerbaijan boasted seven energy lines – of which three carried oil and four natural gas – Aliyev said the lines connected Azerbaijan with the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea, contributing to the energy security of transit countries.      

The Southern Gas Corridor includes three major pipeline projects: the expansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline through Azerbaijan and Georgia, the construction of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) across Turkey and the construction of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) through Greece, Albania and into Italy.

“Eighty percent of the works on the South Caucasus Pipeline, 35 percent on the TAP, and 90 percent on the Shah Deniz field are complete. Our aim is to supply this natural gas to markets next year and complete the project by 2020 in the event that no artificial hold-ups take place in some of the partner countries,” said Aliyev.      

The TANAP project aims to bring natural gas, produced from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II gas field and other areas of the Caspian Sea, primarily to Turkey, but also to Europe via the TAP.