A recent meeting of government officials and big energy companies in Azerbaijan signalled ambitions about doubling the capacity of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), and of more European countries becoming clients.

The fifth meeting of the SGC Advisory Council was held in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on 20 February. SGC is one of the priority projects for the EU and envisages the transport of 10 billion cubic meters per year (bcm/y) of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.

The 3,500 km SGC consists of three parts: the South Caucasus Pipeline, which stretches from Baku and extends westward into Georgia; the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) that traverses the entire territory of Turkey from east to west; and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which moves through Greece, Albania and ends in Italy.

From Greece, an interconnector is planned to bring gas to Bulgaria and possibly to other countries of the region of Central Europe and the Balkans.

The number of countries that participated in the SGC Advisory Council grew this year to 17, said Parviz Shahbazov, Azerbaijan’s minister of energy, as quoted by the Azeri press.

“For the first time, Serbia, Hungary and San Marino took part in the meeting. This shows that interest in this project is growing year by year,” the minister said.

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