BAKU/JAN. 1 2021 (The Bulletin) —  Gas produced in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea which is then pumped through a 3,500km pipeline that cost $45b to build is now, finally, reaching central Europe.

The completion of the so-called Southern Gas Corridor is viewed in Europe as an important part of its strategy to reduce its reliance on Russia for gas supplies, and in Baku as the start of what Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev hopes will be a major boost for the economy.

“The Southern Gas Corridor will strengthen the system of global energy security. It has connected the Caspian region to Europe,” Azerbaijan’s energy ministry said in a statement after Greece, Bulgaria and Italy confirmed that gas had arrived through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, the final part of the Southern Gas Corridor.

The question analysts have posed, though, is not if gas will be delivered to Europe, but how much? There have been concerns that lockdowns imposed to control the coronavirus pandemic have dented demand for consumers for gas, although what is shaping up to be a cold European winter may have changed this thinking.

Linked pipelines running across Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and the Balkans now pump gas directly from the BP controlled Shah Deniz 2 project in the Caspian Sea to Europe. 

The European Commission is keen on the project because it wants to reduce its dependency on Russia, which controls 34% of the European gas market.  It first floated the plan to build a pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Europe in 2008.

— ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021