Brussels, 10/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Commission wishes to set up a steering committee for the Southern gas corridor project, designed to bring gas from the Caspian Sea to the EU through Turkey, the Commissioner for the Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic, announced on 9 December.
Following the Energy Council, Sefcovic said that during his visit to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan in late November, he had received confirmation from the EU's partners in the Southern gas corridor project of their intention to complete the project. “We hope to speed up the work for the southern corridor. We have received very clear assurances from our partners. The work is complying with the timetable. There is a genuine will to keep to schedule. We hope that we will be able to bring gas from the Caspian Sea to the EU's borders by 2019”, the Commissioner pledged, adding that he wished to set in place a steering committee “to make it possible to detect problems upstream and resolve them at political level if necessary”.
Sefcovic also discussed the subject on Monday with the Turkish energy minister, Taner Yildiz, with Turkey currently being courted by Russia with a view to securing transit for Russian gas, following the announced abandonment of the South Stream gas pipeline project (EUROPE 11214). “Mr Yildiz was very clear about Turkey's intentions regarding the 'Southern gas corridor'. Turkey still wants to build the project to schedule. I do not believe that (the Russia-Turkey project) will be at the expense of European interests”, the Commissioner said.
On Tuesday, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania announced their intention of developing a 'vertical corridor' project in south-eastern Europe, based on interconnections with the Southern corridor.
The Southern gas corridor aims to transport gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea via the Trans Anatolian (Tanap) gas pipeline across Georgia and Turkey, and then the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) through Greece, Albania and Italy. This project, which has long enjoyed support from the Commission, would satisfy 20% of the EU's gas requirements in the medium term. However, it will bring just 16 billion m3 a year to Europe (compared to South Stream's 63 billion m3).
Even so, the Commission has widened the scope of possible EU partners in this project to other countries, such as Turkmenistan and Iran. Since late 2011, it has been in talks with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on the construction of the Trans-Caspian pipeline, an undersea infrastructure connecting the two countries on either side of the Caspian Sea to bring Central Asian gas to Europe. (EH)