Azerbaijan boosts natural gas exports to Turkey by 21 pct in 2020

10 February 2021 11:40 (UTC+04:00)

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By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan increased natural gas exports to Turkey by 21 percent, brining the volume of exports to 11.1 billion cubic meters in 2020, local media has reported.

Of the total exported volume, 4.7 billion cubic meters of gas were transported via Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline, and the rest via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline.

Turkey imports Azerbaijani natural gas through the South Caucasus Gas Pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum) and TANAP only.

Moreover, 0.01 billion cubic meters of gas were exported to Europe in 2020, as part of the testing measures.

Azerbaijan started commercial gas supplies to Europe through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline on December 31. Azerbaijan’s gas deliveries to Europe helped achieve the strategic goal of the Southern Gas Corridor that aims to bring Caspian Sea gas resources to the European markets. Out of more than 10 billion cubic meters of gas annually to be supplied to European countries in 25 years via the line, 8 billion cubic meters will be exported to Italy, while 2 cubic meters equally to Greece and Bulgaria, and the rest to the surrounding markets.

Furthermore, 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas were exported to Georgia via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline, of which 0.9 billion cubic meters came from the Shah Deniz field and the rest from SOCAR.

Last year, Azerbaijan exported a total of 13.5 billion cubic meters of gas, which is an increase by 15.6 percent or 1.8 billion cubic meters compared to 2019.

The Southern Gas Corridor is an initiative of the European Commission for a natural gas supply route from Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe. The route from Azerbaijan to Europe consists of the South Caucasus Pipeline, the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.

TAP is a pipeline project to transport natural gas, starting from Greece via Albania and the Adriatic Sea to Italy and further to Western Europe.

The pipeline would be supplied by natural gas from the second stage of Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas field development in the Azerbaijani section of Caspian Sea through the South Caucasus Pipeline and TANAP.

The total length of the pipeline is 878 kilometres, of which 550 kilometres is in Greece, 215 kilometres in Albania, 105 kilometres in offshore, and 8 kilometres in Italy. The offshore leg is laid at a maximum depth of 810 metres.

The initial capacity of the pipeline is about 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year, with the option to expand the capacity up to 20 billion cubic metres.

TAP’s shareholders are BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagás (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).

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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad