Azerbaijan Aiming to Be European Transit Hub
Azerbaijani Minister of Industry and Energy Natiq Aliyev has said that Azerbaijan is in the perfect position to become a transit hub for European energy.
"Azerbaijan's main advantage is its diversified network of pipelines and reliable transport infrastructure, which positions the country as a key energy partner for Europe and the US," he said.
Speaking in an interview with The Business Year journal, Minister Aliyev also said Azerbaijan was on the precipice of important decisions relating to gas and other energy security, including the construction of the Trans-Anatolian pipeline. That pipeline, which would run from Azerbaijan to Turkey, could transport up to 16 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe every year.
The Trans-Anatolian pipeline (also known as TANAP or the Trans Andalou pipeline) would be the first of several pipelines to cement Azerbaijan's place as a key transit country, the minister said.
In addition to the planned pipelines in the country, Azerbaijan continues to strengthen its position in the gas market with the discovery of increasing amounts of gas. Pointing to two fields discovered in the last year, Minister Aliyev said Azerbaijan was sitting on major reserves of energy.
"The discovery of 200 billion cubic meters of reserves and 30-40 billion tons of condensate at the Umid gas field will lead to heavy production in the next three to four years, spearheaded by SOCAR's $5 billion (USD) investment," the Trend news agency reports the minister as saying.
"In addition, exploration was successfully conducted at the Absheron gas field, and according to the preliminary data, there are an estimated 350 bcm of gas reserves."
These discoveries, as well as other massive discoveries including the Shah Deniz field, all add to Azerbaijan's strength in the market which continues to grow. Yesterday, President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) Rovnag Abdullayev said his company expects annual gas production to increase to up to 55 bcm a year by 2025.