EU official: Trans-Caspian pipeline important for Southern Gas Corridor
By Aynur Jafarova
EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger believes the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline project will play an important role in further development of the Southern Gas Corridor, referring to the planned series of links aiming to reduce European countries' dependence on Russian energy.
"Aside from the export of Azerbaijani gas to the EU, the development of the Trans-Caspian Pipeline is important to further develop the Southern Gas Corridor that has a significant impact on the EU gas supply diversification," Oettinger said in an interview with Azerbaijan's Trend news agency on Monday.
The Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline running around 300 kilometers is to be laid from the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, where it will be linked to the Southern Gas Corridor.
Oettinger said that the corridor should ultimately bring more than 40 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the EU annually and the export of gas resources available in Turkmenistan through the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline can contribute to reaching this objective.
As for negotiations on the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline project, Oettinger said the first rounds of talks of the EU with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on this project, which took place in 2011 and 2012, helped to understand the positions and ambitions of the parties at the negotiating table.
"During the most recent rounds of negotiations, serious progress has been made on the design of the framework agreement for the development of this project," Oettinger said.
Talks on the construction of the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline between Turkmenistan, the EU and other countries have been held since the late 1990s. The negotiation process intensified after the EU issued a mandate to start negotiations on the preparation of an agreement between the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on the Trans-Caspian project in September 2011.
The next meeting, according to Oettinger, should help the parties to strike a common ground on the remaining points of the framework agreement concerning the deliveries of gas from Turkmenistan and the associated transit via Azerbaijan.
"We share with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan the ambition of reaching rapidly an agreement on the respective rights and responsibilities, but it would be too speculative to give a final date for the negotiations at this stage," Oettinger said.
Earlier, Azerbaijani Minister of Industry and Energy Natig Aliyev said that two documents which must be signed at the level of the presidents of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and European Commission and the governments of the two Caspian littoral countries are being prepared within the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline project. The three sides will voice support for the corridor under the first document, while the other document is to be signed by the Azerbaijani and Turkmen governments.
The minister noted that Turkmenistan has expressed its support for the project implementation. This means the Turkmen side is ready to deliver around 30 bcm of gas for the project. Azerbaijan, in turn, is ready to ensure suitable conditions for the transportation of Turkmen gas.
2013 pivotal for Southern Gas Corridor
The opening of the Southern Gas Corridor is a priority on the European Commission's energy agenda and this year will be pivotal for the corridor with the ultimate decision on the pipeline route and the final investment decision on the entire project, Oettinger said.
"The aim of the Commission has always been to open the Southern Gas Corridor for the EU in order to directly and physically link the EU gas market to the largest deposits of gas in the world in the Caspian Sea basin and the Middle East," he said.
The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the EU's priority energy projects aimed at diversifying the routes and sources of energy supply, thereby increasing secure delivery. Gas which will be produced during the second stage of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects.
Speaking about the two pipeline options pre-selected by the Shah Deniz partners, Oettinger said that the Commission is neutral where the gas ends up in Europe and the Commission equally supports Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Nabucco West projects.
"Our policy remains that we firstly want to see a dedicated pipeline to be built outside the EU, and if its capacity is limited at the start, it should be ensured to legally and technically increase the capacity to transport higher volumes at a later stage when these become available, and secondly, we want a clear and transparent legal framework for the pipeline which would ensure uninterrupted gas supply to the EU," Oettinger said.
According to Oettinger, Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) meets both of these requirements.
The Shah Deniz consortium is considering both TAP and Nabucco West as options for gas transportation to Europe. The final decision on the pipeline route is due to be made in June 2013.
The TAP project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into western Europe. TAP's initial capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, but it is easily expandable to 20 billion cubic meters.
Nabucco West is a short-cut version of the Nabucco project, which envisages construction of a pipeline from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria. Designated capacity of the project is up to 31 billion cubic meters per year.
The TANAP project envisages gas transportation from the Shah Deniz field to Europe via Turkey. Initial capacity of the pipeline is expected to be 16 billion cubic meters per year. Around 6 billion cubic meters will be delivered to Turkey, while the rest will be transported to Europe.
Oettinger expressed confidence that with the recent signing of intergovernmental agreements for TANAP and TAP, shareholder agreements for Nabucco West and TAP, the projects, in any eventual configuration, will deliver new gas to the EU.