Southern Gas Corridor to Europe – an energy security project

The 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council was held in Baku. The meeting will continue on four plenary sessions. In the first session, reports on works carried out on all segments of the Southern Gas Corridor will be listened. At the second session, ministers of countries involved in the project will make speeches. The third session will be dedicated to financing of SGC on the background of changing trends of the global energy market. The fourth session will discuss SCG expansion, hear lectures on IGP and IAP. As a final, Joint Declaration, as well as protocol of intent are planned to be signed between Albgaz and SOCAR Balkans, Plinacro,Albgaz, BH Gas and Montenegro Bonus.

POTENTIAL IRANIAN ROLE

European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said EU is ready to discuss Iran's joining to the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) with all partners of the project, IRNA reported on Thursday. Sefcovic made the remarks in a press conference at the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council in Baku.

The official further noted that in order for Iranian gas to be delivered to Europe, necessary infrastructures should be provided in the country.

"Europe wants rich countries in natural resources to join the Southern Gas Corridor, within these meetings, negotiations have been conducted with Turkmenistan and Iran," he said.

The Southern Gas Corridor is an initiative of the European Commission for the natural gas supply from Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe. The goals of the Southern Gas Corridor are to reduce Europe's dependency on Russian gas and add diverse sources of energy supply.

The route from Azerbaijan to Europe consist of the South Caucasus Pipeline, the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline, and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline. The total investment of this route is estimated $45 billion.

AZERBAIJANI-EUROPEAN AGREEMENT

The Southern Gas Corridor is a project of cooperation in energy sector and it demonstrates how the cooperation should be, said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. He stressed that the Southern Gas Corridor is an energy security project.

"This means thousands of new jobs. It means not only energy, but also transport infrastructure, investment in transport infrastructure. The Southern Gas Corridor will lead to the gasification of many parts of countries, located along the route and the participant countries. All of these mean development, stability, the possibility of forecasting and opens way for cooperation. Because, today, participant countries of the Southern Gas Corridor are very close partners of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has already signed declarations on strategic partnership with the vast majority of these countries. Presently, we are negotiating with the European Union and the new partnership agreement will create a new format for cooperation between Azerbaijan and the European Union."

 Sources: Tehran Times and Azer News. Map (c) STRATFOR 2011

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