Brussels, 11/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic will take part in the first Consultative Council meeting, in Baku on Thursday 12 February, for the Southern Gas Corridor project. The project is to channel Azeri gas to the EU.
Under the auspices of Azerbaijan, the meeting will bring together representatives from the Southern Gas Corridor transit countries - Georgia, Turkey, Albania, Greece, Italy and Bulgaria - and from the consortia involved in the project - Shah Deniz (which exploits the Azeri gas field in the Caspian sea), TANAP (which will build the trans-Anatolian gas pipeline across Georgia and Turkey to the border with Bulgaria) and TAP (which will build the trans-Adriatic gas pipeline across Greece, Albania and Italy).
Other ministers expected at the meeting alongside Sefcovic and Azeri energy minister Natiq Aliyev are Georgia's energy minister Kakha Kaladze, Turkey's energy minister Taner Yildiz, Albania's energy minister Damian Gjiknuri, Greece's energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, Bulgaria's energy minister Temenujka Petkova, and Italy's secretary of state for economic development Claudio De Vincenti.
The aim of the meeting is to set up a permanent coordination mechanism between all the stakeholders involved in the project, in its various stages - in other words, a steering committee. “The aim of this meeting is to work on a sort of roadmap for the timetable of the worksites, to settle the problems that could arise and to discuss the best solutions possible” Sefcovic stated on 4 February. The ultimate aim is for the Southern Gas Corridor to be operational by 2019-2020.
The Southern Gas Corridor is due to channel gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea to the European market through the trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP), then the trans-Adriatic pipeline (TANAP). Long supported by the European Commission, this project could satisfy 20% of the EU's needs for gas in the medium-term. However, the project only provides for the delivery of 16 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe per year (10 billion cubic metres for the European market and 6 billion cubic metres for the Turkish market).
The Commission has enlarged the scope of possible EU partners in this project to other countries, like Turkmenistan and Iran. Since the end of 2011 it has been talking to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan about building the trans-Caspian gas pipeline - infrastructure under the sea linking these two countries that border the Caspian Sea in order to channel gas from Central Asia to Europe. (Emmanuel Hagry)