Those taking part in the third meeting of Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council in Baku on Thursday 23 February repeated their commitment to the colossal project that will link three gas pipelines to carry gas from the Caspian Sea to the European market across the Caucasus from Azerbaijan.
Reaffirming the “strategic importance” of the project for diversification of the EU’s supply and its energy security, European Commission Vice-President with responsibility for the Energy Union Maros Sefcovic hailed the hard work being done by the participating countries (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Albania and Bulgaria) and the energy companies and financial institutions involved and said he hoped for completion of the project by 2020 (see EUROPE 11732).
The Southern Gas Corridor, which will cost over $40 billion, is projected to carry 10 billion cubic metres of gas from the Azeri Shah Deniz 2 field in the Caspian Sea to the European market, via Georgia and Turkey.
The route from Azerbaijan is through three linked pipelines: the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) which will run between Azerbaijan and Turkey, the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) which will cross Turkey, and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which will link Turkey with Italy, through Greece and Albania.
With work on the TAP project being hampered in the Italian region of Apulia, where local authorities are calling for the pipeline to be redirected, away from a grove of some 200 olive trees believed to be 400 years old, Italian Economy Minister Carlo Calenda said that work to clear this major hurdle to establishing TAP's landing point in southern Italy would begin on Monday and he gave assurances that “there are no problems with the construction of the Italian section of the TAP pipeline”, the Reuters press agency reports.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev also sought to allay growing concerns over Azerbaijan’s ability to meet its commitments on gas supply, with domestic shortfalls eating into the share left over for exports. Aliyev pledged to implement the Southern Gas Corridor “on time”, stating that delays would be “unacceptable”. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)