SGC Advisory Board helps assess corridor progress, future tasks

The Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council was instrumental in rallying all parties behind the Southern Gas Corridor project and monitoring progress in relation to its construction, Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson told Report.

“We will now discuss the role it’ll play in the future,” she noted about the upcoming 8th SGC Advisory Council, adding that it was established jointly by Azerbaijan and the EU and meets each February.

She said that SGC contributes to the EU’s energy diversification and security of supply policies: “As such, it also strengthens the European energy system.”

“The Southern Gas Corridor brings natural gas from a new source and via a new route to the EU,” she added.

The eighth meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council will take place on February 4 in Baku. As in previous years, all companies participating in the Southern Gas Corridor are expected to participate, including SOCAR, BP, TPAO and others, as well as representatives of countries such as Turkey, Georgia, Bulgaria, Italy, the UK, the US, Greece and Albania. Among potential participants are Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia. The arrival of representatives from other countries is not excluded.

The SGC, which includes the development of the Shah Deniz field and a gas pipeline chain originating in Azerbaijan and stretching to southern Italy, was created with the aim of diversifying natural gas supplies to the EU and reducing the number of EU countries with a single source of supply. The last European section of the SGC, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which began commercial deliveries on December 31, 2020, has allowed the supply of Caspian gas to Greece, Bulgaria and southern Italy.