by E. Gurkan Abay
ANKARA
Companies working on the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline - a project to supply Azerbaijani natural gas to Europe via Turkey - will be able to apply for EU financial support, worth a total of 6 billion Euro till 2020, according to
the office of the EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger.
The Southern Gas Corridor project, which is set to open in 2019, has gained increasing importance for Europe as events in Ukraine have highlighted the need for the continent to diversify its energy supply.
“The pipeline is planned to transport minimum of 10 billion cubic meters of new sources of gas from the Caspian Region annually, crossing Georgia and Turkey,” said Nicole Bockstaller press officer for the EU Commissioner.
She added, “The gas will ultimately reach EU markets through two possible routes: one crossing South-East Europe and reaching Austria, the other one reaching Italy through the Adriatic Sea.”
Bockstaller added that Europe’s energy diversification plan also involves the increase of imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) mainly from Qatar and the US.
The Southern Gas Corridor is estimated to cost around US$45 billion. A future expansion of the project is planned - by adding natural gas from Northern Iraq, Turkmenistan, Eastern Mediterranean and possibly Iran.
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