Azerbaijan has very huge gas resources and Shah Deniz field is the main resource base of the South Gas Corridor, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at a joint press conference with Bulgarian Premier Boyko Borisov on March 4, 2015.
“The resources of Shah Deniz gas field exceed 1 trillion cub.m. Total gas resources in Azerbaijan reach 2.6 trillion cub.m. The South Gas Corridor actually unites several projects,” said President.
He added that Trans-Adriatic pipeline (TAP) is an integral part of the South Gas Corridor.
“When TAP route was selected as the main export route, somebody thought that the Nabucco project is already the matter of the history. But what did we see in reality? We have seen that Bulgaria as Nabucco member has already become member of the South Gas Corridor. This means that we need to consider TAP as a part of the South Gas Corridor. The route of the South Gas Corridor is just a line. It starts in Baku and ends in Italy. But this line could have several branches and one is already under construction. Gas connection Bulgaria-Greece is a part of this branch,” said Ilham Aliyev.
Azerbaijan and Balkan countries have already signed the memorandums of cooperation, which will be implemented in this area.
“The memorandums have been signed with Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Construction of Ionic-Adriatic gas pipeline is the subject of the talks. The line from Bulgaria to the neighboring countries, including Romania and Hungary, is already under construction. We have exchanged opinions about that. You are right that consumers of the gas from the Shah Deniz field are known. But Absheron field in the Azerbaijani sector will be put into operation in the near future. Umid field also have huge gas resources. I hope that in the coming 5-6 years as minimum extra 5-6 billion cub.m. of gas will be extracted on these two fields,” said Ilham Aliyev.
Bulgarian Premier added that there is an issue of filling and maintenance of the both gas pipelines. “Azerbaijan has sufficient gas resources and we have wide possibilities to receive this gas. As you can see, bilateral projects have been created in many fields,” said Boyko Borisov.
“Considering all that, we intend to connect TAP with the Nabucco project. This is not about how to name these projects. The main issue is that Azerbaijan should transport a maximum volume of gas to the European market for as many as possible European countries have an access to this gas,” said Bulgarian Premier.
Asked by the journalists about the perspectives of the Nabucco-West project, Premier added that it is a part of the South Gas Corridor. “This was a priority of the European Commission. I would like to say that it would be a unique chance for Bulgaria, if its big company Bulgargaz becomes a part of the TAP project. This issue must be brought up for discussion in Brussels,” said Borisov.
This, however, does not mean that Bulgaria crosses our the South Stream project. The permissions have been received. There was no official information that the works have been suspended. If there is an intention to continue the works, we could continue the project implementation. Nabucco-West was never an alternative to the South Stream, just like South Stream project is not an alternative to any other project. Bulgaria could expand its transit possibilities. Our arguments are that in this situation we have real possibilities to receive Azerbaijani gas. From the liquefied gas terminal we could receive additional volumes of gas even from Greece. Thus, we could supply both local market as well as the market of neighboring countries with gas,” Borisov said.
