(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 9. Slovakia is ready
to adjust its existing infrastructure to enable increased gas
supplies from Azerbaijan, Slovakian Ministry of Economy told
trend.
'Slovak Transmission System Operator, supported by the Slovak
Government, has been preparing a corridor for the Azerbaijani gas
to increase security of supply in the region of the South- Eastern
Europe. The initial idea (former Eastring project) was to develop a
route enabling to import to Europe 20 bcm of non-Russian gas. This
initial idea has been further developed to current vision of
achieving immediate transmission capacity amounting 5 bcm/year,
with just minor adjustment of currently used infrastructure in
cooperation with TSOs from Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria,' said the
ministry.
The Slovakian ministry said that amid the current geopolitical
situation, this idea has become more significant.
'This was confirmed also at the EU high political level by the
Memorandum of Understanding on a Strategic Partnership in the Field
of Energy signed by the European Commission and Azerbaijan in July
2022 which includes a commitment to double the capacity of the
Southern Gas Corridor to deliver at least 20 billion cubic metres
to the EU annually by 2027.
This would contribute to the diversification objectives in the
REPowerEU Plan and help Europe to end its dependency on Russian
gas. In line with the Memorandum between the EU and Azerbaijan,
Slovakia and other countries are ready to adjust existing
infrastructure in cost efficient way to enable to deliver increased
Azerbaijani gas quantities to Europe,' said Slovakian Ministry of
Economy.
Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria have asked the European
Commission to allocate funds for developing infrastructure to get
additional natural gas from Azerbaijan.
It is about developing the existing infrastructure, construction
of new interconnectors and expanding the capacity of the existing
ones. It is important to increase the number of interconnectors in
Europe in order to boost gas imports from Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan's gas exports to Europe began on December 31, 2020
with the commissioning of the Southern Gas Corridor comprising of
the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion, the Trans Anatolian Natural
Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
Azerbaijan's export of natural gas to European Union market will
stand at 11.6 billion cubic meters as of 2023.
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