Vitaly Baylarbayov: It is impossible to stop the Southern Gas Corridor

Baku. 26 May. REPORT.AZ/ "A project like Turkish Stream could ruin the Southern Gas Corridor is complete nonsense." Report informs that deputy vice-president of SOCAR, Vitaly Baylarbayov said in his interview with "EurActive".

According to him, Southern Gas Corridor is the only alternative project to bring gas to Europe from a source other than Russia, during the last eight years: "Unlike the Gazprom project, the Southern Gas Corridor is about billions of dollars already being invested The Southern Gas Corridor is not at all a project aimed at our promotion. It is not a political project, it is strictly a commercial project. We are realising the project with our international partners. You can see from the map the respective companies are from Asia, from Europe, from the Western world and from the world that we call Oriental.There is also a Russian company, Lukoil, which is a shareholder in the Shah Deniz 2 gas field, there is an Iranian company, NICO, the British company BP, Petronas from Malaysia and (the) Turkish TPAO. Regarding our European customers, basically all are major European companies: Shell, Gaz de France, Gas Natural of Spain, the Italian companies ENEL and Hera – the geography is huge."

SOCAR official noted that in the beginning of 2020, our customers in Greece, Bulgaria and Italy will start receiving gas originating from Shah Deniz: "Nobody would (take on) a $45 billion project of pipelines and of offshore gas pumping at Shah Deniz 2 if they are not certain that the project is feasible, that it is realistic and that deadlines will be kept. The deadline is 2018 for the start of producing at Shah Deniz 2. In 2018, this gas will start flowing to Turkey, to Eskişehir."

V.Baylarbayov thinks that Southern Gas Corridor created the conditions for investment in the amount of 12 billion USD to Azerbaijan and Georgia: " 30% of the work that needs to be completed in the Caspian region, in Azerbaijan and Georgia has already been done. "Southern Gas Corridor" is not a political project, it is strictly a commercial project. It is impossible to stop this project. None of our partners can stop it."