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Countries in southeastern and central Europe began cooperating in the creation of new gas transportation routes to compensate for the loss of Russian gas exports to Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The “vertical corridor” would provide Azerbaijan with a new route to export gas to Eastern and Central European markets, and Baku’s commitment to the European Union to double its gas exports to Europe to $20 billion. It may be helpful to accomplish this. cubic meters per year by 2027.
The planned new route will mainly use existing pipelines connecting the gas transmission systems of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, but will require capacity expansion in some sections and cross-border connections. becomes.
A “vertical corridor” could thus provide a valuable new source of gas for Moldova and Ukraine, which have had problems meeting their domestic needs since the Russian invasion.
Equally important, it will be able to supply gas to Ukraine’s existing main east-west gas transportation system, which has been largely unused since Russia’s invasion of the country in 2022 and the subsequent suspension of gas shipments to Europe.
This project is January 19th meeting Energy ministers from South-Eastern and Central Europe met in Athens under the European Union’s Central and South-Eastern Europe Energy Connectivity Initiative (CESEC).
At the meeting, which was also attended by EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson, signing of memorandum A memorandum of understanding signed between gas transport operators from EU member states Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia and gas transport operators from Ukraine and Moldova creates a north-south gas transport corridor between the seven countries It is intended to.
Comments on the agreement simson said The vertical hallway will look like this: ”[E]It allows for the bidirectional flow of natural gas from north to south and vice versa, which “helps secure the world’s energy supply.” ukraine and Moldova and strengthen the whole. energy security regional. ”
New corridors, old infrastructure
The new agreement calls for the creation of a new high-capacity gas transport corridor that will reverse the direction of gas flow in some sections and allow larger volumes of gas to be transported from Greece and Turkey. proposed to upgrade and expand gas transportation infrastructure. To Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine.
Ukraine’s own existing transport pipelines could then carry the gas directly to Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and other European markets further west.
The new corridor will be able to carry gas imported by ship to Greece and Turkey as liquefied natural gas (LNG), as well as gas imported from Azerbaijan to Greece via Turkey.
We have taken the first step towards realizing a vertical corridor. February 1 Bulgaria’s state-owned gas transport operator, Bulgar Transgas EAD, has launched a public consultation in parallel with state-owned operators in Greece, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine to increase supply capacity required by the EU.
The final capacity of the new corridor has not yet been determined, but According to GTSOU, Ukraine’s state-owned gas transmission network operator.There is ample demand from European gas buyers for a supply capacity of as much as 21 million cubic meters per day from Moldova to Ukraine, which is based on the existing supply of the Southern Gas Corridor, which currently carries all of Azerbaijan’s gas exports to Europe. It is twice the capacity.
It remains to be seen how this will affect the existing Southern Gas Corridor, and more specifically its final stage, the TAP pipeline. TAP is owned by a consortium that includes Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR and BP, which operates Azerbaijan’s largest gas field, Shah Deniz, which produces the majority of Azerbaijan’s gas exports.
TAP’s nominal maximum production capacity is 20 billion cubic meters per year, but it will operate at approximately 10 billion cubic meters per year until the TAP consortium partners make the necessary investment decisions to add new compressors needed to expand the pipeline. doing. Carry more gas.
in January of last year Consortium announced The company plans to expand production capacity by 1.2 billion cubic meters per year by 2026, but has not yet indicated when or if it will make investments to increase capacity to 20 billion cubic meters per year.
The creation of a new vertical passage may obviate the need for that additional expansion unless a new gas source becomes available to fill both passages.
Currently, the only available gas sources are LNG imported via terminals in Greece and Turkey, and gas transported by pipeline from Turkey, of which only gas from Azerbaijan is currently available.
Efforts to increase Azerbaijan’s own gas production are progressing well.
BP announced on January 30th. France’s Total Energy, which began producing gas from Azerbaijan’s Absheron gas field in July last year, said it plans to start producing gas from a new “deep” field in early 2024, increasing production. It approved plans to increase the amount from 1.5 billion cubic meters per year to March 2024. Approximately 5.5 billion cubic meters per year.
Baku continues to insist that On target It aims to meet its promise to supply Europe with 20 billion cubic meters a year by 2027, but questions remain about whether that goal can be achieved without imports from neighboring Turkmenistan and Iran. .
Gas from Turkmenistan could be made available in either or both corridors, subject to negotiations between the two countries. Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Iran A plan to deliver Turkmenistan’s gas to Turkey via Iran has come to fruition.
Written by David O’Byrne, via eurasianet.org
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