"Although the world prioritises the creation and development of alternative energy sources, traditional energy sources will remain the main energy sources of the leading economies - Europe and the United States in the next 30-40 years, “ economic expert Eldeniz Amirov told reporters, commenting on the 8th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council. 

“In this context, we see how important the SGC (Southern Gas Corridor)  is. This corridor is of utmost significance for the provision of energy security in Europe, raising Azerbaijan’s reputation, and attracting hundreds of billion dollars to the country. 

The geography of the SGC covers a large area of 6 countries - Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Albania and Italy, including the Adriatic Sea, and its significance is obvious. In my view, one must not forget about its components, talking about the corridor. SGC 4 is the latest manifestation of the expanded project, ” the expert said.

Amirov also stated that the corridor starts from ‘Shahdeniz’ field and continues with South Caucasus Pipeline, Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP): “The length of TAP in Italy is 8 km. The capacity of these pipelines is quite large - 10 billion cubic metres, and there is a possibility to increase it to 20 billion cubic metres. TANAP, which runs from Turkey's border with Georgia to the Turkish-Greek border, currently has a capacity of 16 billion cubic metres, which can be raised to 30 billion cubic metres. It means that the corridor is of strategic importance with its current status and has the potential to be expanded. This necessitates to hold certain talks stage- by- stage with the relevant companies and states for the future use of the corridor, and organize such meetings of the Advisory Councils.

The expert added that there are 1.2 trillion cubic metres of gas reserves, including 240 million tons of condensate in the Shah Deniz field: “This factor indicates the gravity of establishment of the infrastructure to transport these resources to Europe. Therefore, the SGC is a large-scale project, which was implemented with an investment of up to $ 40 billion. 

In addition, given the 400 billion cubic metres of gas reserves in Babek field and 200 billion cubic metres in Umid field, and the possibility of greater potential in the lower layers of the Shah Deniz field in the future, this corridor will play a role in the European security by delivering the Azerbaijani gas to Europe, and will remain a serious incentive for the inflow of foreign currency to our country. 

At the 8th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council, President Ilham Aliyev stated that the coordination on the national level helped us to implement this huge project, one of the largest projects of the 21st century Southern Gas Corridor which is worth 33 billion US dollars. “At the same time, of course, we couldn’t have achieved success without active participation of the companies, energy companies, construction companies, and investors. They are present today and, of course, their contribution was very valuable as well as the international financial institutions. The Southern Gas Corridor project is probably also one of the few projects in modern history where all the leading financial international institutions contributed to its implementation. World Bank, EBRD, Asian Development Bank, EIB, Asian infrastructure and Investment Bank, the leading international financial institutions, provided loans, funds for this project to be implemented. So now, we can really be proud of ourselves that this complicated from all points of view, projects have been delivered with a high level of efficiency.”

European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi, as well as high-ranking representatives of the US, UK, Turkey, Georgia, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, and Turkmenistan attended the event. 

Moreover, the event was also attended by the representatives of the energy companies - bp, BOTAS Petroleum Pipeline Corporation, TPAO, TANAP, TAP, SNAM, Fluxys, ICGB, Romgaz, SACE, SGC, Enagas, Uniper, TotalEnergies, Equinor, LUKOIL, as well as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, and other structures. 

The plenary sessions entitled “Southern Gas Corridor: achievements and prospects. Expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor towards new energy markets, including Western Balkans” and “Energy transition - from hydrocarbon fuels and measures to reduce methane emissions to carbon neutrality: paths, challenges, timeframe” were organized within the meeting.

The first meeting of ministers within the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council was held on February 12, 2015, the second meeting - on February 29, 2016, the third meeting - on February 23, 2017, the fourth meeting - on February 15, 2018, the fifth meeting - on February 20, 2019, the sixth meeting – on February 28, 2020, the seventh meeting – on February 11, 2021.

More about: