Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey Energy Bridge to strengthen energy security: minister
By Jamila Babayeva
The implementation of the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey Energy Bridge project will contribute to the development of the Black Sea Electricity Ring.
Azerbaijani Energy Minister Natig Aliyev made the remarks during the 21st International Caspian Oil and Gas-2014 Conference in Baku on June 4.
"This will allow Azerbaijan to strengthen its energy security and to ensure the export of its electricity," he said.
Aliyev said Azerbaijan has recently achieved great success in the field of power engineering. "In particular, more than 15 power plants were built and reconstructed in the country."
He stressed that the operations are intensively underway to connect Azerbaijan's energy system to similar systems of neighboring countries.
"In particular, extensive work has been carried out to ensure parallel operations of power systems of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran," he added. "Technical work carried out within the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey Energy Bridge project will ensure electricity export to Turkey, and in the future - to Europe."
Aliyev said at present, Azerbaijan's energy system capacity is 7,105 MW or by 1,500 megawatts more than the country's electricity needs.
The country is able to annually produce about 22 billion kilowatt / hours of electricity. This creates the annual export capacity to the amount of two billion kilowatt / hours.
Aliyev also said Azerbaijan intends to supply gas to Europe soon.
"Azerbaijani gas will be supplied further Italy and reached to Central Europe in the future," he added.
He stressed that Azerbaijan produced 43.5 million tons of oil and 29.5 billion cubic meters of gas in 2013.
"The various companies' and organizations' evaluation of Azerbaijan's hydrocarbon reserves is pessimistic," he said. "However, the country's hydrocarbon reserves are much more than valued."
The "Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey Energy Bridge" project envisages supplying 1,200 megawatts of electricity to Turkey. Some 600 MW of this volume will fall to Azerbaijan. The project envisages annual export of up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity from Turkey to Europe. Power transmission within the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey Energy Bridge can start in 2014-2015.