In early February 2015 Turkey ahead of schedule completed preparatory work for the construction of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), the longest part of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC - TANAP-TAP). Thus, as it was planned earlier, the construction itself of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline is to be launched this March.
By 2020, the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) system is to ensure first contract gas supplies from Shah Deniz to the EU market.
SGC Advisory COUNCIL
With the aim to coordinate efforts of all numerous participants of the SGC project and ensure its timely implementation the first meeting of the Advisory Board of the Southern Gas Corridor chaired by President Ilham Aliyev was held on February 12 in Baku.
“We have to work just the way it was before (during the implementation of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum projects), like the trilateral cooperation between Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan”, President Ilham Aliyev said in his speech. Since the situation now is more complicated as the number of partners and stakeholders increased, “we have to contribute to the implementation of the project to complete it on time”, the Head of State said.
According to Ilham Aliyev, the initial resource base for the Southern Gas Corridor is the Shah Deniz field. In total, all proven gas reserves in Azerbaijan exceed 2.5 trillion cubic meters. Absheron, Umid and many other fields will definitely contribute to the Southern Gas Corridor project. Most likely, we will have production and export far higher than the figures projected today, assured the President of Azerbaijan.
In turn, Vice President of the European Commission for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič said: “gas supplies from the Caspian to Europe have been our long-nurtured dream. But now, thanks to all work done we are close to implementation of this project”.
Maroš Šefčovič strongly believes that Europe should have the right for stable gas supply and the Southern Gas Corridor project is the first major project to deliver new gas to European consumers via a new supply route.
According to estimates of the European Commission, the EU now imports 66 percent of consumed gas and 90 percent of oil. “In the future, gas imports to the European Union will reach 84 percent and oil import is going to hit 94 percent”, the Vice President of the European Commission said. This is the reason why “in June we decided to work out an action plan that will help the Member States in Southeast Europe to have an access to at least three different sources of energy. In this case, we are able to talk about diversification and stable energy platform”, stressed Maroš Šefčovič.
“I believe the best result of today’s meeting could be drawing of a “roadmap”. What we need is to know which work should be done, what challenges we have. We will work as per schedule and as expected will see Caspian gas in Europe by the end of this decade”, Maroš Šefčovič concluded.
The ministers of the SGC partner countries, who addressed the meeting, including the new government of Greece, confirmed the full support to the project and its timely implementation.
