By Trend

No one is energy secure unless everyone is and the Southern Gas Corridor is an important contribution to that international effort to build and maintain global energy security, former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta told Trend.

"As is well-known in energy policy circles, the Southern Gas Corridor, like the earlier projects to develop oil deposits in the Caspian and to move those hydrocarbons to world markets, is extremely important. Diversification of supply has long been recognized as essential for ensuring adequate, affordable access to energy and hence to economic growth and well-being as well as to a country’s national security. The current international situation is reminding us of this continuing reality," he said.

As for expanding the SGC in terms of production and export capacity, Cekuta believes that everything that can be done should be done and done now.

"Gazprom’s actions against Poland and Bulgaria only reinforce this point. I know there are additional Azerbaijani offshore deposits, which I hope will be able to add soon to the supplies of gas available to Europe. It is probably also time to look at the pipeline’s current capacity to see what can be done quickly to increase its ability to transport increased volumes -- and perhaps also its ability to transport hydrogen sometime in the future as the world switches to hydrogen as a fuel. It is certainly time to look again at what can be done to tap and move gas from the eastern side of the Caspian west through the SGC," he added.

Azerbaijan’s gas exports to Europe began on December 31, 2020 with the commissioning of the Southern Gas Corridor comprising of the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion, the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). TAP’s gas supplies to Europe has to date exceeded 11 billion cubic meters.