Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has underscored the importance of energy security issues for every country, Azernews reports.

The president made the remarks at the 9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial and the 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meetings in Baku.

“A lot has changed in the world since the 8th Advisory Council, or the Southern Gas Corridor, which was held here a year ago. The world has changed energy security issues became more and more important for every country. And as we said during the meetings that energy security really is a matter of national security, and all what has been done by our joint efforts with respect to building new routes and engaging new sources now seems to be much more needed than ever before,” the president stressed.

He pointed out that everything was done on time and no time was lost, despite some delays during the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project.

“And it was good that we did everything on time. We did not lose time, though there have been certain delays during the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project. But in general, we were just very committed to completing it as soon as possible. And now, by the way, we already talk about expansion. The Southern Gas Corridor was inaugurated only something more than two years ago, but already today we talk about the expansion of TANAP from 16 to 32 billion cubic meters and expansion of TAP from 10 to 20,” Aliyev added.

To note, the first Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council was held on February 12, 2015, the second meeting on February 29, 2016, the third meeting on February 23, 2017, the fourth on February 15, 2018, the fifth on February 20, 2019, the sixth on February 28, 2020, the meeting on February 11, 2021, and the eighth on February 4, 2022.

In 2023, Azerbaijan plans to increase gas supplies to Europe to 11bn cu.m. As of 2022, Azerbaijan has exported 9.3 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe in the first 10 months and is expected to supply 11.5bn cu. m. of gas to Europe by the end of the year.

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