Elmar Brok: There is a great potential in the Southern Gas Corridor

Baku.15 December. REPORT.AZ/ Events in Ukraine have propelled energy security back to the top of the EU’s foreign policy agenda. Russia’s actions have led to sharper consideration of the need for energy diversification. Thus, there is a great potential in the southern gas corridor. Report informs, writes Head of European Parliament Elmar Brok.

For the EU, this has one clear implication: it cannot continue to depend on an unreliable energy supplier, which is using energy as a political tool. Securing European energy supplies is therefore high on the EU’s agenda. It must develop the alternatives necessary to stand up to Russia without worrying about its energy supply, he added.

E.Brok also stated that, Russia needs the EU for its market and investment, more than member states need Russia. It depends on its oil and gas exports to Europe and a period of prolonged uncertainty would have serious implications for Gazprom and Russia.

Nevertheless, the tension with Russia has obliged the EU to boost its energy security mechanisms and seek alternatives to Russian gas, he wrote.

He declares, while environmental and safety considerations must remain the highest priority, member states should continue to explore possibilities in new technologies and the potential for unconventional oil and gas within the EU. Some options include: increasing liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Algeria, Qatar or Nigeria, increasing gas imports from Norway and exploring the possibility to export shale gas from the US.

There is a great potential in the southern gas corridor. Azerbaijan has already committed to providing 10 billion cubic meters of gas and more from Turkmenistan is possible, if negotiations on a trans-Caspian pipeline are successful, Elmar Brok added.