TODAY.AZ / Business

Azerbaijan, Ukraine, European security

11 April 2009 [11:39] - TODAY.AZ
Azerbaijan and Ukraine intend to build a common position on the supply of Azerbaijani gas to the European Union, and will hold consultations at the level of foreign ministries, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said in Baku.

Gas diversification to Europe is among the EU's most significant energy issues. Ukraine and Azerbaijan take an important place in this process.

Enhancing of energy supply diversification to Europe is directly connected with Ukraine. As a result of the Ukrainian-Russian gas dispute in winter of this year, most EU countries remained without gas. Russia, which is the main gas supplier to EU, has stopped fuel shipments through Ukraine because of the inconsistency prices. However, Russian supplied gas to Europe through the territory of Ukraine.

This forced European countries to intensify the search for alternative gas supply sources to Russia. The Caspian region is the principal route for all the alternative routes for gas supplies to Europe. This is because Iran and Iraq, being potential gas sources were compounded by the political situation and EU's sanctions against Tehran.

Azerbaijan is a country which has not only export experience, but also transport experience. The major gas condensate Shah Deniz field with 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves has been developing in the country. This gas is supplied to Turkey through the South Caucasus gas pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum). Turkey is considered by the EU as the main "hub" to supply gas through alternative routes, such as Nabucco, ITGI and TransAdriatic pipeline.

Azerbaijan's gas export infrastructure makes the corridor, running via the route from Azerbaijan, more attractive for gas supplies from the Caspian region. Azerbaijan is also the only transit route for alternative gas supplies from the east coast of Caspian to Kazakhstan and from Turkmenistan to Europe. All other gas supply routes from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, which possess gas reserves, will pass either through the territory of Russia, or through Iran.

The route, which is passing via Turkey, is the only route for gas supplies to Europe. Before, Ukraine proposed to create a new route - White Stream.

According to the project, gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field will be pumped via Georgia to the Black Sea to Ukraine and EU countries. According to the concept, the pipeline would be connected to the South Caucasus gas pipeline near Tbilisi, and would pass 100 km through Georgia to the Black Sea. The alternative plan proposes to extend the underwater pipeline to Romania.

The initial capacity of the pipeline will be of 8 billion cubic metre of gas daily. The pipeline will be provided of gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field. Later, the White Stream may be connected to the TransCaspian gas pipeline. The second line of the pipeline will be laid via sea depth and its capacity will be increased to 24-32 billion cubic metre per year.

/Trend Capital/
URL: http://www.today.az/news/business/51486.html

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