BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 4
By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:
As one of the strategic players in the energy sector in the region, Turkmenistan remains an important partner of Poland, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland told Trend.
“Diversification of energy sources, corridors and suppliers is key objective of the Polish strategy in the energy sector,” the source added.
The ministry stressed that the development of cooperation in the energy and transport sectors were high on the agenda of consultations between the two countries.
Poland also supports the concept of construction of the Southern Gas Corridor.
“In our view, Turkmenistan can play vital role in the project in the subsequent phases,” noted the MFA.
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 The Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) Phase 0 was held on June 12, 2018, in the Turkish city of Eskisehir. TANAP-Europe connection was opened on Nov.30, 2019 in Ipsala, Edirne, Turkey.
Meanwhile, Turkmenistan with its huge reserves could be one of the key countries to join the Southern Gas Corridor.
More than 190 oil and gas fields have been discovered on the territory of Turkmenistan, and the hydrocarbon reserves of deep-water fields in the Caspian Sea amount to 12 billion tons of oil and more than 6 trillion cubic meters of natural gas.
VP for marketing and investment at Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR Elshad Nasirov said in 2019 that the Southern Gas Corridor can also transport gas from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
Similar opinion was voiced by World Bank (WB) expert Alexander Huurdeman at the "Oil and gas of Turkmenistan-2019", the 24th international exhibition and conference, where he pointed out that with the formation of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) in 2020, gas supplies from Turkmenistan to Europe are becoming reality.
The Southern Gas Corridor comprises the following four projects: (i) operation of Shah Deniz natural gas-condensate field (SD1) and its full-field development (SD2), (ii) the operation of the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) and its expansion (SCPX project), (iii) the construction of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and (iv) the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
The projects have an estimated investment cost of approximately $40 billion.
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