(MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 1. Azerbaijan is
clearly a reliable supplier of gas to the EU, Julian Bowden, Senior
Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford Institute for Energy Studies
(OIES) told Trend .
'The Southern Gas Corridor is working well: it is delivering gas
into southern Europe & Italy, and helping those EU countries
(Greece, Bulgaria and Italy) improve their diversity of supply,' he
said.
Talking about the recently signed memorandum of understanding
between the European Commission and Azerbaijan, Bowden noted that
the MOU refers to doubling the capacity of the SGC.
'Where is this supply to come from? If it is Azerbaijan, then we
needed to see the upstream commitments yesterday. Filling this new
SGC capacity by 2027 looks very hard if it is to be only
Azerbaijani gas. That leaves Turkmenistan gas, delivered either by
swap from Iran, or from a Trans Caspian pipeline,' he added.
Bowden believes that if we can't see the supply part of this
chain being worked very soon, then it will not be possible to help
Europe overcome the current gas supply crisis.
The analyst pointed out that overall, the MOU is aspirational,
and the challenge now is very quickly moving the MOU into something
more tangible. 'There is still a lot of work to be done.'
On July 18, 2022, a 'Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic
Partnership in the field of energy between the European Union
represented by the European Commission and the Republic of
Azerbaijan' was signed between Azerbaijan and the European
Union.
The Sides agreed to support bilateral trade of natural gas,
including through exports to the European Union, via the Southern
Gas Corridor, of at least 20 billion cubic meters of gas annually
by 2027, in accordance with commercial viability and market
demand.
According to the document, any further exports of natural gas to
the European Union beyond those that are being delivered to date
will require significant investments in the expansion of the
Southern Gas Corridor pipeline network and the upstream project
development.
Moreover, the EU and Azerbaijan will encourage financing of the
expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline network taking into
consideration the EU's climate policies and its REPowerEU strategy,
including through cooperation with international financial
institutions.
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