US Supports Implementation Of Vertical Gas Corridor Project - Geoffrey Pyatt

(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 28. The US supports theimplementation of a Vertical Gas Corridor project, said USAssistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt ata briefing, Trend reports.

"The US expresses support for Vertical Corridor, which isdesigned to bring non-Russian gas up into Central Europe, includingto markets like Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia that remaindependent on Russian gas. This will be especially important in thecontext of what we expect will be the end of transit throughUkraine at the end of this year when the transit contract expires,"he said.

According to Pyatt, there's an important potential role forTürkiye there as well as an entry point for non-Russian gas intothat Vertical Corridor, which would go up through Bulgaria,Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine, leveraging the gas storage thatUkraine has available in western Ukraine.

The assistant secretary also noted that Türkiye's role in theSouthern Gas Corridor project is highly noteworthy.

"Türkiye has played a very important role as the host of theSouthern Gas Corridor, in helping to diversify European energysupplies and European gas supplies away from dependence on Russia;as the host of multiple LNG liquefaction facilities, which havereceived a lot of American LNG over the past two years since thebeginning of the war in Ukraine," Pyatt added.

The idea of constructing the Vertical Gas Corridor originated inthe EU in 2014.

Ukraine, Moldova, and Slovakia joined the memorandum on itsconstruction in January 2024. The corridor originates in Greece,then goes to Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine, branching offto Slovenia, and Slovakia.

Vladimir Malinov, executive director of Bulgargartransgaz, saidin February 2024 that the company was considering options forsupplying liquefied natural gas from Greece and Türkiye via theBulgargartransgaz network to Ukraine via the Vertical Corridor, andfrom there via the Romanian and Moldovan networks.

This project is an alternative to the non-EU-backed "Ring ofSolidarity" project initiated in 2022.

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