Southern Gas Corridor to be finalized by 2020

By Ruslan Rehimov

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AA) - Azerbaijan aims to finalize Southern Gas Corridor, that by 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Friday.

The Southern Gas Corridor includes South Caucasus Pipeline, Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).

Speaking at “On the Road to (Price) Stability? The return of OPEC and the Geopolitics of Oil” roundtable as part of the Munich Security Conference, Aliyev said Azerbaijan played an important role in the energy security of the region.

He noted that the country will also play an important role in Europe's energy security with the natural gas mega-projects.

Highlighting that Azerbaijan boasted seven energy lines -- of which three carried oil and four natural gas -- Aliyev told that these lines are connecting Azerbaijan with Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea, contributing to energy security of transit countries.

The Southern Gas Corridor includes three major pipeline projects: the expansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline through Azerbaijan and Georgia, the construction of the Trans Anatolian Natural gas Pipeline (TANAP) across Turkey and the construction of The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) through Greece, Albania and into Italy.

"The 80 percent of the works in South Caucasus Pipeline, 35 percent in TAP, and 90 percent in Shah Deniz field are finalized. Our aim is to supply this natural gas to the markets next year and finalize the project by 2020 in case no artificial hold-ups take place in some of the partner countries," said Aliyev.

The under-construction TANAP project aims to bring natural gas, produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz-2 gas field and other areas of the Caspian Sea, primarily to Turkey, but also onto Europe via the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).