Ilham Aliyev: Southern Gas Corridor to be implemented successfully

By  Trend

The Southern Gas Corridor project will be implemented successfully and Azerbaijan will provide both European countries and the countries of the region with natural gas for many years to come, said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev during the 22nd World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul.

President Aliyev said that Azerbaijan is an ancient land of oil.

“Indeed, we believe that Azerbaijan is a home of oil, because the first industrial method of oil production was applied in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1846,” he added.

President Aliyev noted that at the same time, the year 1994 is remarkable for the signing of the “Contract of Century” which today plays the main role in filling the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

“Afterwards, a very rich gas field Shah Deniz was discovered in Azerbaijan. The reserve of this field is estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters. It is one of the largest fields on a global scale. Today, it is the resource base of the Southern Gas Corridor. Thus, currently, Azerbaijan has turned into a producer and exporter of oil and gas,” said the president.

He went on to add that the Southern Gas Corridor project consists of four parts.

“The first one is the Shah Deniz gas field. The Shah Deniz 2 project is 93 percent complete and will be fully completed soon. The second one is the South Caucasus Pipeline which connects Azerbaijan and Georgia. The work on this project is 87 percent complete. The third and the most important part is the TANAP gas pipeline which is 77 percent complete. We will mark the execution of this project next year. Finally, the fourth part is the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, which is 44 percent complete,” he said, adding that all these four important projects constitute the Southern Gas Corridor.

The president noted that $40 billion worth of investment is needed for the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project and the major part of this amount has already been invested.

Azerbaijan’s proven gas reserve is estimated at 2.6 trillion cubic meters and in the coming years, over decades, Azerbaijani gas will meet the demand of both European countries and countries of the region, added President Aliyev.

The president pointed out that seven countries participate in the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania and Italy.

“Three Balkan countries can also join the Southern Gas Corridor in the future and relevant work is underway in this regard. That’s to say, we are expanding this project’s geography and can further expand in the future, because this project is an initiative benefiting every country,” said the president.

Implementation of this project shows that all countries and companies participating in it get benefit, said President Aliyev.

“We have created such a great cooperation format in which both producers, that’s to say, Azerbaijan and transit countries, as well as consumers work on the basis of common interests. This balance of interests paved way for the successful implementation of this major project, because there are quite a lot of technical, financial, economic and political issues,” said the president.

“Today, we can already say that the Southern Gas Corridor project will be implemented successfully and Azerbaijan will provide both European countries and the countries of the region with natural gas for many years to come,” added President Aliyev.