SOCAR did not rule out its gas export via Turkish Stream in the future

In the future Azerbaijan hopes to use capacities of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline on the territory of Europe to export additional gas volume from its fields, RIA Novosti quoted Elshad Nasirov, SOCAR Vice President for Marketing and Investments, as telling journalists.

“Turkish Stream will not compete with the Southern Gas Corridor, because our gas has been sold for 25 years ahead and the buyers are obliged to receive it, but we need new pipelines for the new generation of fields in Azerbaijan,” Nasirov said.

He also added that it is not a problem if the Turkish Stream is built faster, than the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). “Because by the time the trans-Adriatic gas pipeline (TAP) is built, our consumers will be obliged to receive our gas,” added SOCAR’s representative.

Nasirov also added that in the future Absheron, Umid and Babak fields will help to increase gas extraction in Azerbaijan. “We hope that if the Turkish Stream is built, then we could use the extension. We have two options: either TANAP and TAP expansion to add gas, or use access to the pipe within the framework of the EU Third Energy Package (continuation of the Turkish Stream on the territory of Europe), he said.

Turkish Stream project envisages construction of the gas pipeline with the capacity of 63 billion cub.m. of gas a year from Russia to Turkish through the Black Sea. About 1100-km-long gas pipeline will consist of four branches and will bring up to 47 billion cub.m. of gas to the Turkish-Greek border.

The gas hub is planned to be created on the Turkish-Greek border and the EU member-states must independently use gas transportation capacities to receive gas on their own territory.—0---