On February 12, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev attended the first meeting of the Advisory Council of the Southern Gas Corridor in Baku.
The head of state has made speech at the meeting.
President Ilham Aliyev stressed that this meeting took place in the appropriate time – the year of practical implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor. President noted that the discussions, exchange of opinions will contribute to the successful implementation of the project.
President Ilham Aliyev underlined that the close cooperation between the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan and BP played an important role in the successes achieved in the oil and gas projects during past years. Noting that Azerbaijan’s confirmed gas reserves exceed 2.5 trillion cm, the president said the producing, transit and consuming countries should coordinate their efforts for realization of Southern Gas Corridor: “Diversification of energy resources is being discussed in the main arena of the international organizations. Azerbaijan plays its role in the diversification. While speaking about diversification, we mean not only routes, but also sources. Routes also should be diversified, but the situation does not change more when the source is same. Sources are to be diversified. In this case, Azerbaijani gas will be only gas source for European consumers for next years. Of course, it creates another situation”.
President Ilham Aliyev expressed his assurance that all issues for realization of the project will be positively solved and the project will be implemented timely, and wished success to the work of the Advisory Council.
Underlining President Ilham Aliyev’s merits in the realization of the Southern Gas Corridor, the Vice-President of European Commission for Energy Marosh Shefchovich said that he engages in creation of energy union in the EU and the discussions regarding the project, which is on the agenda, politically reached higher level. He said Europe is interested in diversification of sources for energy safety. Noting that according to calculations, the gas import by the EU will make 84%, oil import – 94% in the future, Marosh Shefchovich said that regular steps will further be taken for energy safety of EU countries and real integration to European energy system. Therefore, he stressed he hopes that the Southern Gas Corridor will be implemented successfully and rapidly.
Thereafter, the Advisory Council continued discussions regarding issues, which are on the agenda.
At the end of the event, the participants signed joint statement for media.
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