Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The European Commission will continue to work with Azerbaijan and all involved countries for increasing the volumes supplied through the Southern Gas Corridor, opening the possibility of construction of the second pipeline through Central Europe to Austria, the spokesperson to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, Maja Kocijancic, told Trend on Tuesday.

"Azerbaijan has been called a 'door-opener' in this process," Kocijancic said. "However there are further potential sources in the Southern Gas Corridor linking the EU to Turkey, the Eastern Mediterranean, Iraq and other countries."

The Southern Gas Corridor is a planned series of links aimed at diversifying the routes and sources of energy supply for European countries.

Kocijancic went on to say that the EU welcomes the decision on the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) as an important step towards the completion of the Southern Gas Corridor, bringing significant diversification of gas supplies to Europe and improving Europe's energy security.

According to Kocijancic, the Commission is also working closely with member countries for improving the interconnections of the markets in Central Europe.

"With the necessary infrastructure and reverse flows of an Internal EU Energy Market in place, once the gas enters the EU, it can be transported anywhere in Europe," Kocijancic said.

A consortium of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development announced its choice of the TAP project in late June, as a gas transportation route to the European markets.

Nabucco West was the second pipeline, which competed for the transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe.

Designed to expand the capacity from 10 to 20 billion cubic meters per year, TAP will transport natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz 2 field in Azerbaijan to the most attractive markets in Europe.

The Shah Deniz field, which is one of the world's largest gas-condensate fields, was discovered in 1999. Its reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. Overall, the field has proved to be a secure and reliable supplier of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey as well as Europe.

The peak of production within the Shah Deniz 2 development will start in 2022 and last for seven to eight years. Drilling is planned to be undertaken from five clusters and the entire process will be completed in 2022. The first gas is expected to be produced as early as 2018.