By Trend

Slovakia has built all necessary gas pipeline interconnectors to get approach to the Southern Gas Corridor, Slovakian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Milan Laj?iak told Trend.

"But for real tapping into it, there is a necessity to complete the Greece-Bulgaria Gas Interconnector and to enlarge the transportation capacity of the Southern Gas Corridor, Then it may be possible to start considering possible gas purchases of Azerbaijani gas through the Southern Gas Corridor to Slovakia," he said.

Laj?iak noted that after the gas crisis in 2009, Slovakia has significantly diversified available access routes of gas.

‘Currently, Slovakia no longer depends on gas routes exclusively from Russia, though, the current gas import from Russia to Slovakia is still over 90 percent of our consumption," he said.

The ambassador went on to add that with regard to the war in Ukraine and growing uncertainty on eastern borders, Slovakia and EU member states are looking for diversified sources and routes of crude oil and gas deliveries to EU.

"We would like to see more Azerbaijani gas in our region. Our country, as well as the whole EU, will surely appreciate the supply of additional volumes of Azerbaijan gas to European markets in order to cover EU market needs," the envoy explained.

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, will annually supply eight billion cubic meters of gas to Italy and one billion cubic meters of gas to Greece and Bulgaria.