Gas delivery from Turkmenistan to Europe requires the construction of a pipeline along the bottom of the Caspian Sea, as well as additional gas transportation infrastructure through Azerbaijan, following the example of the Southern Gas Corridor. This is the essence of the statements made by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the opening ceremony of the Shusha Global Media Forum on 21 July Friday.
The geography of gas supplies from Azerbaijan to Europe is expanding
“The geography of our gas supplies to Europe is becoming broader and broader, and hopefully by the end of this year, two more European countries will be recipients of Azerbaijani gas,” the President of Azerbaijan said.
Speaking about the Southern Gas Corridor, Aliyev stressed: “We initiated, we were their major shareholder, and we were actually their coordinator of all intergovernmental relations and agreements. As you know, this project was successfully implemented, and already for more than two years Azerbaijan became an important gas supplier to Europe. The President of the European Commission names Azerbaijan a reliable partner, and the Energy Commissioner of EU calls Azerbaijan a pan-European gas supplier.”
Aliyev also said that Azerbaijan is working on increasing the capacity of the TAP (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline) and TANAP (Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline) pipelines in light of the gas demand growth in Europe.
“The pipeline, which was designed for 10 bcm like TAP, now, needs to be expanded up to 20 bcm. TANAP from 16 to 32,” he told.
Furthermore, Aliyev explained the increase in capacity of the gas transportation system as a result of the expansion of his own resources. “if 2021 we exported 19 bcm, last year, it was more than 22 bcm, and this year, probably it will be 24 bcm or even more,” the President of Azerbaijan stressed.
At the same time, Aliyev recalled that at least 300 billion cubic meters were discovered at the Absheron gas field. “The first well is already producing gas more than any well on Shahdeniz,” he said.
What infrastructure is needed to deliver gas from the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea to Europe?
“For additional gas from Eastern shores of the Caspian – first, the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline must be built under the sea, and second from Baku to the European destination, another something like the Southern Gas Corridor must be built,” Ilham Aliyev said.
However, the materialization of the Trans-Caspian project requires capital investments. According to Aliyev, it will be difficult to attract financing from European banks, since “now European banks stopped financing the projects of fossil fuel.” Moreover, “the green transition makes implementation of this project even more complicated.”
Aliyev also expressed hopes that the termination of funding is temporary.
“The fluctuation of the gas prices in Europe, which we see also creates a lot of questions. By the way, also the price cap, which, I think, was absolutely unacceptable for the consumers to put a limit for the price. This is totally in contradiction with any market economy principles, which these countries were advocating for many years”, he went on saying.
Meanwhile, despite the voiced obstacles in the implementation of the gas pipeline project through the Caspian Sea, the President of Azerbaijan summed up: “If someone decides to build the Trans-Caspian Pipeline, we will be only happy. We will have more transit fees and more cooperation.”///nCa, 22 July 2023
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