Southern Gas Corridor important not just for Azerbaijan, but also for European countries

The US and Azerbaijan work in such traditional areas as security, economy and energy, the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland said.

She made the remarks Feb. 17 at a press conference in Baku.

Nuland praised the meetings she earlier had in Baku, noting that the US very much values over 20 years of partnership with Azerbaijan.

“We want to continue the strong work we have done together over these years,” she said.

Nuland went on to add that the US wants to see the strong and independent Azerbaijan.

“We talked about the work we are doing together in Afghanistan, in Kosovo, on countering terrorism, violent extremism,” she said.

Touching upon the cooperation in the sphere of energy, Nuland said the Southern Gas Corridor is important not just for Azerbaijan, but also for all the countries in Europe, which are too dependent on a single source of energy.

She said the Southern Gas Corridor is a joint project of the US, Azerbaijan and Europe.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. The project is aimed at diversification of routes and sources of energy supply and thereby increase EU’s energy security.

It envisages the delivery of gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas and condensate field to Europe.

The gas to be produced as part of the second stage of the field’s development will be exported to Turkey and European markets through the expansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).

The first volume of gas from the Shah Deniz-2 will be delivered to Turkey in 2018 and Europe in 2019.

/By Trend/