Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.17 / Trend , S.Aliyev /
Azerbaijan delivers gas to the Greek market more than a year, and thus on the market of the European Union. There is no doubt that there is a very good chance for further greater cooperation, said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during the state visit to Greece.
Representatives of the Greek government have repeatedly expressed the desire to buy gas from Azerbaijan through direct contracts. Prime Minister of Greece Kostas Karamanlis said in an interview with Trend that Greece holds negotiations for the delivery of up to one billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas per year to the country.
Greece intends to use this gas before 2013 full-scale deliveries of gas connecting via the ITGI (Turkey, Greece and Italy). The pipeline is also planned to be filled with Azerbaijani gas. According to experts, to deliver natural gas to European countries from the Caspian region, markets of transit countries must be supplied first and Greece is no exception.
For a full-scale transport of Azerbaijani gas to Greece and other countries a transit agreement with Turkey is needed to sign. President Aliyev said that if a transit agreement will be inked in 2009, then it will begin exporting Azerbaijani gas to Greece and Bulgaria. Currently, the gas reserves in Azerbaijan are estimated at least two trillion cubic meters.
Greece is of great importance for natural gas supplies to Europe from the Caspian Sea region, Iraq and other countries to ensure energy security of the EU. Many pipelines that provide alternative supplies of Russian gas to Europe pass through the territory of that country. Among them are ITGI and Trans Adriatic gas pipeline.
The ITGI transport corridor includes an updated Turkish pipeline infrastructure, as well as ITG (pipeline connecting Turkey and Greece) projects and IGI. The Greece-Italy pipeline is a missing link of the Turkey-Greece-Italy corridor, which will transport gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East to Italy and Western Europe via Turkey and Greece. The planned carrying capacity of ITGI is 12 billion cubic meters per year.
In 2009 Azerbaijan will produce about 27 billion cubic meters of gas, of which part will be uploaded into the layer in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field to maintain reservoir pressure. More than nine billion cubic meters of gas will be extracted at the Shah Deniz gas condensate field. SOCAR will produce additional eight billion cubic meters of gas. Part of associated gas from Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field will be transferred to Azerbaijan free of charge.
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