Azerbaijan, France eye Southern Gas Corridor expansion

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan and France have discussed the cooperation in expanding the Southern Gas Corridor.

The discussion took place during the meeting between Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov with representatives of France's Europe and Foreign Affairs Ministry and ENGIE company's executive vice president.

" We discussed cooperation in expanding the Southern Gas Corridor and exporting green energy to Europe with representatives of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and Didier Holleaux, Executive Vice President of ENGIE," the minister wrote on his official Twitter page.

The Southern Gas Corridor is an initiative of the European Commission to build a natural gas supply route from the Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe.

The South Caucasus Pipeline, the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline link Azerbaijan to Europe (TAP). The pipeline is powered by natural gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea's second stage.

The pipeline's initial capacity is approximately 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, with the option to increase capacity up to 20 billion cubic meters.

Azerbaijan started commercial gas supplies to Europe via this route, with the completion of the TAP construction on December 31, 2020.

During the pipeline's first year of operation, Azerbaijan supplied 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas to European markets, rather than the planned 5 billion cubic meters. Azerbaijan intends to supply 9 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe through the Southern Gas Corridor by 2022.