Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan negotiating gas transport on Southern Gas Corridor

Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are negotiating on the issue of natural gas transport from fields in Turkmenistan's Caspian Sector on the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), Azerbaijan Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said in an interview with Azerbaijani television channel ANS.


"Currently these fields have capacity to produce oil and gas, 5 billion cubic meters of gas [in total], which can be transported on SGC. In future, this figure may rise to 10 billion cubic meters, which creates even greater prospects for this corridor. We are currently in talks with the Turkmen side on this issue and will see what the result is," Aliyev said.


Turkmenistan has the ability to export up to 30 billion cubic meters of gas a year in the westward direction.


However, concerning plans for construction of a trans-Caspian gas pipeline, Aliyev said there were many unresolved questions concerning the project that did not depend on Azerbaijan.


"I believe that exports of Turkish gas westward are realistic and Turkmenistan does not object to this, but on condition that the gas is sold at its border. This raises many issues. Our position is that we are creating the opportunity for any countries to export its gas on the SGC to Europe. We even consent to long-term agreement with third countries [on gas transit] to invest in raising capacity on the corridor, increasing capacity on the gas pipelines that make up the system and building new gas compressor stations," Aliyev said.


SGC stipulates construction of two new pipelines with a total length of 3,460 kilometers: the Trans Anatolia Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), which will stretch across Turkey from the eastern to western border, and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which will link Greece and Albania to southern Italy across the Adriatic Sea.


Aside from TANAP and TAP, the main components of the project, estimated to cost $45 billion, are Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz project and expansion of the South Caucasus Gas Pipeline (Baku to Georgia-Turkey border).

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