Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.23
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Although Netherlands doesn’t participate in the Southern Gas Corridor project, envisaging transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, it attaches extreme importance to this project, former president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), chairman of the Dutch Friends of Azerbaijan Group Rene van der Linden said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
He noted that Europe intends to diversify its energy supply routes and sources so that not to be much dependent on one supplier of gas. In this regard, Rene van der Linden stressed the importance of Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) which constitute the Southern Gas Corridor.
Those projects, he said, are of extreme importance not only for the Netherlands, but for the whole Europe.
Rene van der Linden believes that the need for diversification of supplies will grow for sure as part of fulfilling the sustainable energy goals.
"Gas from Azerbaijan via the Southern Gas Corridor will meet the demand of South and South-Eastern European countries. But the pipelines in Europe are more and more interconnected to each other so that you can bring energy resources from the south of Europe to the north of Europe without problems. We are extremely interested to support the energy security in the EU as a whole," he said.
The Southern Gas Corridor, worth $41.5 billion, is considered as one of the priority energy projects for the EU, which strives for diversification of gas sources. The project envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.
At an initial stage, the gas to be produced in the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.
As part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
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