Azernews.Az

By Aynur Karimova

Azerbaijan has rebuffed claims that the Turkish Stream poses a threat to its own Southern Gas Corridor project.

SOCAR Vice President Elshad Nasirov said that the Turkish Stream is not a rival to the Azerbaijan-initiated Southern Gas Corridor project, "since the country's gas volumes have been sold for a period of 25 years and the buyers are obliged to receive it."

Talking to journalists on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 19-21, Nasirov expressed Azerbaijan's intention to use the gas transportation potential of the Turkish Stream to transport excess future supply of domestically produced gas.

He said the construction of the Turkish Stream prior to the Southern Gas Corridor would not cause a problem, since the consumers of the Azerbaijani gas "are obliged to receive our gas by the time of construction of TAP [Trans-Adriatic Pipeline]."

The 1,100 kilometer-long Turkish Stream, with a pumping capacity of 63 billion cubic meters, envisages the transport of gas from Russia to Turkey through the Black Sea. The gas pipeline will consist of four branches and supply 47 billion cubic meters of gas to the Turkish-Greek border. The project necessitates that the EU countries develop their own domestic infrastructure networks to adequately distribute the gas from the Turkish Stream.

Some experts claimed that Turkey, which has a 30-percent stake in the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline project, will refuse Azerbaijani gas and withdraw from the TANAP project. However, Turkey’s BOTAS Petroleum Pipeline Corporation's refusal to participate in the implementation of the Turkish Stream project once again proves that this project is quite risky for the Turkish authorities.

It is therefore unlikely that Europe will refuse Azerbaijani gas. EU member states have been waiting quite a long time to receive alternative gas supplies. TAP, a part of the Southern Gas Corridor running through the EU, was even granted exemption from the rules of the EU’s Third Energy Package that has been compulsory for all other energy projects.

Stanislav Pritchin, research assistant of the Center for the Study of Central Asia and Caucasus of the Institute of Oriental Studies, believes that by implementing the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project, Russia is not trying to take over Azerbaijan’s niche market.

"Russia's task is to create the conditions of fulfilling its obligations, rather than to occupy the niche of Azerbaijan," Pritchin told Trend earlier. “Azerbaijan has already signed contracts with customers for the gas supply.”

“At present, the Russian [Gazprom] company does not have the legal opportunity to independently build its own gas pipeline to its customers due to the conditions of the Third Energy Package,” he said. “That is why Gazprom decided to change the South Stream route towards Turkey. The further objective is to create the necessary infrastructure in the EU to be consistent with the European standards and norms."

Energy-rich Azerbaijan sees Europe as the most optimal market for its blue fuel. Meanwhile European countries, which have understood the necessity of diversifying energy supply routes, see Azerbaijan as an alternative source of gas to protect them from Russia's natural gas politics.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

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