U.S. supports construction of gas pipeline from Azerbaijan to Europe

By Rashid Shirinov

The U.S. supports the construction of a gas pipeline providing for the transportation of Azerbaijani gas from the Shah Deniz field to Europe, U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said at a briefing on September 13.

He noted that the U.S. stands for competition.

“I confirm that we support another pipeline – on the supply of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region to Europe,” Perry said.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union, which aims to diversify routes and sources of energy supplies and thereby improve the energy security of the EU.

The opening ceremony of the SGC was held in Sangachal terminal in Baku on May 29. The cost of the project is over $40 billion.

Gas as part of the Shah Deniz 2 field development is exported to Turkey through the TANAP gas pipeline and will be exported to the European markets through the expansion of the South Caucasus gas pipeline and construction of the TAP pipeline.

A ceremony to launch TANAP took place June 12 in the Turkish city of Eskisehir. First commercial gas deliveries to Turkey commenced within the Southern Gas Corridor on June 30.

The length of TANAP is 1,850 kilometers, with the initial capacity of 16 billion cubic meters of gas. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas is meant to be delivered to Turkey, with the remaining volume to be supplied to Europe.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz