The European Union continues to work together with Azerbaijani partners to create proper conditions to enable the required infrastructure investment, including by increasing predictability over the EU demand and the Azerbaijani gas production outlook, an EU official told Trend.
"The REPowerEU plan and the EU-Azerbaijan Memorandum of Understanding on a new Strategic Partnership in the field of energy recognise the goal of doubling the annual capacity of the Southern Gas Corridor to reach 20 billion cubic meters, by 2027. This will play a major role in securing gas supply in Europe. Expanding the Southern Gas Corridor involves upgrading its European leg, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) from Greece to Italy. Two sections of the TAP are included in fifth Union list of projects of common interest, namely the Adriatica and the Mattagiola-Massafra pipelines," said the EU representative.
The EU official noted that in addition, the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) started operations in 2022 with an initial capacity of 3 bcm per year to be further increased to 5 bcm.
"It can deliver Azerbaijani gas to Bulgaria and onwards across the Balkan region and to Central Europe. In this context, a "Solidarity Ring" initiative was launched in Sofia last month to develop a supply route for Azerbaijani gas to Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, and possibly also to Moldova and/or Ukraine."
Southern Gas Corridor started transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe on December 31, 2020. It transports gas from the Caspian Sea region to European countries through Georgia and Türkiye.
The project’s cost totaled $33 billion, as compared to the forecast $45 billion. Capital expenditures on the SGC project are expected to be fully reimbursed within 8-10 years.
In July 2022, Azerbaijan and EU agreed to increase the volume of gas supplies via the Southern Gas Corridor from the current 10 bcm to 20 bcm by 2027.