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EU committed to extending SGC to Central Asia

20 June 2017 12:45 (UTC+04:00)
EU committed to extending SGC to Central Asia

By Kamila Aliyeva

The European Union will continue to seek extension of the Southern Gas Corridor, designed to bring Caspian gas to Europe, to Central Asia.

The European Council on the EU Strategy for Central Asia announced that cooperation between the EU and Central Asia in the energy, infrastructure and transport sectors should prioritize the integration of the Central Asian countries with each other and into international markets and transport corridors.

“The EU will continue to seek to extend the Southern Gas Corridor to Central Asia, and to further promote the EU's multilateral and bilateral energy cooperation,” reads the document, published on the website of the Council on June 19.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. The project which is set to change the energy map of an entire region will bring Caspian gas to the European markets through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

The Shah Deniz gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans Adriatic Pipeline.

The European Council further stressed that the EU will also continue to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency in Central Asia by offering its expertise in the development of sound regulatory frameworks and by supporting investment cooperation with European financial institutions.

The Council noted that the countries of Central Asia have become significant partners of the EU. “Ten years after the adoption of the Central Asia strategy, and more than 25 years after the five countries became independent, the Council welcomes the progress achieved in developing the EU's relations with Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as well as with the Central Asian region as a whole,” the document said.

The Council reaffirmed the EU's commitment to develop stronger relations and highlighted the need to strengthen dialogue and cooperation on human rights, education, sustainability as well as on tackling emerging security challenges faced by the Central Asian countries.

The EU-Central Asia relations are being developed under the EU strategy for Central Asia, signed in 2007 and reviewed in 2015.

The ambitious SGC project, one of the European Union's priority energy projects, is assessed as a strategically important initiative that will allow Europe to secure its energy security.

Among the Central Asian countries, Turkmenistan has showed a greatest interest in supplying gas to Europe via connecting to the Southern Gas Corridor.

Turkmenistan is a landlocked country and thus it is dependent on pipelines to export its gas on world markets. Moreover, the country lost Russia as a customer one year ago, and has since provided gas only to China and Iran. Therefore, Turkmenistan began to look for alternative consumers in the European and Asian markets and expressed interest in joining SGC project.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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