"We are, in fact, talking about a complementary cooperation just like the agreement between Gazprom Export and Azerbaijani SOCAR on the supply of Russian gas," said Yanovsky.

The Deputy Minister noted that several options for the further transportation of Russian gas are being worked out.

"One of them in particular is the corresponding development of the national gas transmission systems (GTS) of Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary directed towards Austria. Moreover, Gazprom is working, together with Italy’s Edison and Greece’s DEPA, on the possibility of using the Poseidon gas pipeline project in the direction of southern Italy," he said.

Yanovsky noted that all these options fully comply with EU standards, including the Third Energy Package (a package of regulatory legal acts in the field of gas and electricity, approved by the EU in 2009 and aimed at liberalizing the electricity and gas market).

The preferability of one of these options, as noted by the Deputy Minister, is determined by the readiness of the gas transportation infrastructure, which, in turn, depends on the interest and actions of the governments of these countries.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.

The launching ceremony of the first stage of the Southern Gas Corridor was held in Baku on May 29, 2018, while opening ceremony of TANAP was held on June 12, 2018 in the Turkish city of Eskisehir.

The gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field has already gone through the first segment of the Southern Gas Corridor - from the Sangachal terminal to the expanded South Caucasus Pipeline.

Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) have been recently connected on the Turkish-Greek border.

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