European Commission Energy Commissar Gunter Oettinger stands for construction of the trans-Anadolu (TANAP) gas pipeline as soon as possible, so Europe would solve the problem of its energy dependence on Russia.
"Caspian gas will be our deliverance. Azerbaijan is ready to become a transit country and it must have a possibility to transport 30 billion cub.m. of gas a year via its territory," Oettinger said at the Gas Forum in Frankfurt on November 27-28, 2012.
He reminded that Russia will start construction of South Stream gas pipeline soon. "Russia does everything to implement this project and for this reason we experience certain pressure. We should exert pressure to implement the projects, which are in the field of our interests," Oettinger said.
"If South Stream is built and TANAP is not (it has not been ratified by the Turkish parliament yet), then Turkmenistan gas will be pumped to Russia and further to Europe, but at a much higher price," he added.
He said that in the coming decades natural gas will be used as the main type of fuel in Europe, though coal will still be popular. Despite rapid development of non-traditional gas resources, they will be unable to substitute natural gas and no significant changes are expected at this market.
Oettinger said that several items related to saving power and the most important of them "20-20-20" policy are on the agenda of the Council of Europe till 2020. This policy envisages import of renewable sources of power from the Mediterranean region. He said in 2020 Europe's demand in natural gas will grow up to 600 billion cub.m. and they will be mainly covered at the expense of new pipelines, which will be built via Norway, Algeria and Caspian Sea region.
"South Gas Corridor is a good opportunity to start implementation of the project for pumping of 10 billion cub.m. of Azerbaijani gas, but this is not enough to implement the whole project. Considering a rapid growth of demand in gas in Turkey, 6 billion cub.m. of gas will not be enough for it. Considering that delivery of 10 billion cub.m. of gas to Europe will be reduced to nil and we will not be able to be satisfied with the above-mentioned volume," Oettinger said.
For this reason Europe welcomes construction of an independent gas pipeline and supports TANAP pipeline initiated by Azerbaijan and Turkey. As far as Nabucco and TAP projects are concerned, Europe occupies a neutral position here. "We stand for implementation of both projects. Diversification of the markets of the countries, via which gas from the Nabucco project will be transported, is very important and we are interested in integration of gas system of Greece with the European one," he added. Oettinger expressed hope that all the works of the Nabucco project will be finished in 2018.-0--
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