On Friday 4 April, the European Commissioner for Energy, Dan Jørgensen, took part in the 11th meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor and the 3rd meeting of the Green Energy Advisory Council in Baku (Azerbaijan), bringing together representatives from 24 governments and 52 institutions and companies.
The event reaffirmed the partnership between the EU and Azerbaijan in the field of energy, focusing on the security of supply of “affordable, stable and safe” natural gas, renewable energies, energy efficiency, hydrogen and the reduction of methane emissions.
The Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council underlined the crucial role of the corridor in transporting Azerbaijani gas to a growing number of customers and contributing to the diversification of EU supplies, with more than 13 billion cubic metres supplied to Member States by 2024.
“Natural gas remains an important pillar of energy security and it is essential to continue investing in gas fields and infrastructure”, said Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister, Parviz Shahbazov. He added that “strong support from the EU” was “essential to continue the expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor and fill the supply gaps”.
The Green Energy Advisory Council examined, among other things, several green energy corridor projects designed to bring green energy resources from Azerbaijan and Central Asia to Europe.
In the margins of the meetings, Minister Shahbazov and Commissioner Jørgensen exchanged views with the Georgian, Romanian, Hungarian and Bulgarian ministers on the progress made on the Green Energy Corridor project crossing the Caspian and Black Seas to Europe. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)