BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 18. Southern Gas Corridor has played a critical role in helping Europe, Italy, Greece, and Bulgaria in particular, to weather the storm, said Geoffrey R. Pyatt, Assistant Secretary Bureau of Energy Resources, Trend reports.
Pyatt was addressing the Regional Clean Energy Outlook Conference: Advancing Climate and Security Goals held in Istanbul on October 10-11.
He pointed out that like the Southern Gas Corridor, the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) was the culmination of years of technical, commercial, political and diplomatic effort.
“President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen rightly called it a game-changer for European energy security. We look forward to the completion of the next phase of projects to bring gas to the Western Balkans including importantly the Alexandroupolis FSRU. We also greatly appreciate what Türkiye has done using its own new regassification facilities to support delivery of LNG to its neighbors. Much of this gas infrastructure is linked to the region’s phase out of coal-based power and thereby advances our climate goals as well,” noted Geoffrey R. Pyatt.
He noted that as a large economy and a NATO ally, Türkiye fills a critical role in regional efforts to diversify and transition energy supplies of which TANAP and the Southern Gas Corridor is only the most prominent example.
The supply of Azerbaijani gas to Europe through the Southern Gas Corridor began on December 31, 2020. Azerbaijan exported its natural gas to the European market through pipelines for the first time in history.
The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which is the European part of the Southern Gas Corridor, annually supplies eight billion cubic meters of gas to Italy and one billion cubic meters of gas to Greece and Bulgaria.
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