TIRANA, February 3 – The 9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting held in Baku on February 3 continued with plenary sessions on the “Southern Gas Corridor and Green Energy Ministerial Session”, “Southern Gas Corridor: Expanding affordable, stable and safe natural gas supply” and “Green Energy: Delivery of Caspian Sea wind energy to European energy markets,” reported AZERTAC on Friday.
In his opening remarks at the ministerial session, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov confirmed that the launch of the Green Energy Advisory Council along with the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council was evidence of the fact that green energy was a priority for the country alongside natural gas. He stressed that Azerbaijan is a reliable strategic partner for regional countries and Europe in terms of energy supply.
According to him, 2023 is a crucial year in terms of the Southern Gas Corridor and in terms of the delivery of the green energy from the Caspian Sea to Europe. He revealed that gas supply to Europe through the Southern Gas Corridor was increased to 11.4 billion cubic meters in 2022. “In order to be able to double gas supply to 20 billion cubic meters by 2027, we need to accelerate our infrastructure and upstream investment decisions, consolidate all stakeholder positions without wasting any time, and begin expanding the corridor through comprehensive diversification.”
The creation of a green energy corridor powered by Azerbaijan is also, as he said, our strategic priority, and so in December last year, with the political support of the European Commission, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary took a historic step to connect the Caspian Sea to Europe by means of green energy.
Albania’s Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Energy Ilir Bejtja who attended the meeting said that his country would chair the Energy Union in 2023. “The goals for this year are to prioritize renewable sources in the diversification of energy production, to become a leading energy-saving country by increasing efficiency, and to develop natural gas infrastructure for gas supply to industrial and energy sectors. Albania’s goal is to produce environmentally friendly energy.”
Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Donmez said in his remarks that it was needless to say that TANAP as the main component of the Southern Gas Corridor was a perfect example of joint cooperation. “In this context, we are ready to develop cooperation with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan in order to improve the well-being of our region,” he said.
Taking the floor at the meeting, Italian Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said through new long-term supply contracts, they hope to increase the capacity of the Southern Gas Corridor and increase gas supplies to the European Union to at least 20 billion cubic meters by 2027. “We believe that this is an important prospect not only for consumers and transit countries, but also for producer states.”
US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Diplomacy in the Bureau of Energy Resources Laura Lochman noted in her remarks that the US-Azerbaijani partnership would create a foundation for energy security through regional energy cooperation and the transition to clean energy.
Many other speakers from Britain, Georgia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Moldova, Croatia, Serbia, highlighted that the importance of Azerbaijan for Europe has increased for gas supply due to the intense energy crisis.
The speeches were followed by presentations in a session entitled “Southern Gas Corridor: Expanding affordable, stable and safe natural gas supply” made by representatives of SOCAR, bp, the Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company, TANAP, TAP, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank. /Argumentum.al
