Azernews.Az

By Aisha Jabbarova

Azerbaijan has sufficient gas resources to provide for the second phase of the Southern Gas Corridor, Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov has said.

“The first phase of SGC provides for the supply of 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Turkey and Europe. In the second phase, the transmission capacity of the South Caucasus pipeline and the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline can be increased to 30 billion cubic meters, the capacity of the TAP pipeline to 20 billion cubic meters,” Shahbazov said.

The Minister noted that many countries in Europe are interested in the development of the SGC, especially the countries of the Balkan region, from which Bulgaria will receive gas as part of the first phase of the SGC.

Southern Gas Corridor was launched in May 2018 with an estimated cost of $38 billion.

The main components of the project are: Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz project, the expansion of the South Caucasus pipeline Baku-Georgia-border with Turkey, the construction of the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) from the eastern to western borders of Turkey and the Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline (TAP), connecting Greece, Albania and the south of Italy. Currently 3 out of 4 project components are implemented. The construction of the TAP gas pipeline is 92% complete. Azerbaijani gas deliveries to Europe are expected in the 4th quarter of 2020 in the amount of 10 billion cubic meters. In addition, 6 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas is intended for deliveries to the western regions of Turkey. Deliveries to Turkey began in the summer of 2018.