BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec.20
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
S&P Global Platts forecasts that the Southern Gas Corridor expands further in the future, James Huckstepp, EMEA gas analyst, S&P Global Platts, told Trend.
“The Southern Corridor project will soon provide the necessary transportation capacity to deliver 16 billion cubic meters per year of Caspian gas directly to Europe. Whilst this initially covers only 3-4 percent of total European gas demand, it is a much larger proportion of the gas into Southern Europe, and S&P Global Platts forecasts that it expands further in future,” he said.
Huckstepp noted that a total of 6 billion cubic meters per year of gas from Shah Deniz 2 is kept for the Turkish market.
“A further 10 billion cubic meters per year is set to reach Greece, Bulgaria and Italy via the TAP pipeline, which is almost complete and is expected to begin operations after October 2020. Greece and Bulgaria are contracted to take 1 billion cubic meters per year each of Shah Deniz 2 gas, leaving 8 billion cubic meters per year for Italy from Gas Year 2021,” noted the gas analyst.
He pointed out that there are already plans for an expansion of parts of Southern corridor project beyond TAP being expected to begin flowing gas to Italy in October 2020.
“We assume 10 billion cubic meters per year is redirected from TurkStream to Central Europe from Gas Year 2021 and TAP displaces another 8 billion cubic meters per year of Russian gas to Italy (Ukraine route) from October 2021. TANAP has an initial capacity of 16 billion cubic meters per year and Platts forecast an increase to 24 billion cubic meters per year by 2023 and reach 31 billion cubic meters per year by 2026,” said Huckstepp.
The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.
The launching ceremony of the first stage of the Southern Gas Corridor was held in Baku on May 29, 2018, while opening ceremony of TANAP’s Phase 0 was held on June 12, 2018 in the Turkish city of Eskisehir. TANAP-Europe connection was opened on Nov.30 in Ipsala, Edirne, Turkey.
Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) were connected on the Turkish-Greek border.
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