EU applauds Azeri gas tie to Turkey

With Azeri natural gas reaching the Turkish market, the European energy sector is closer to its strategic goals for diversification, a commissioner said.


Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday hosted his Azeri, Serbian and Ukrainian counterparts in a ceremony for the inauguration of the 1,150-mile Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline.

The Turkish president said the event put his country closer to becoming a regional energy hub. For the European market, he said the pipeline is the "backbone" of the so-called Southern Corridor as its longest component.

The corridor consists of a network of pipelines, including TANAP and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline through Greece to Italy, tied to the Shah Deniz natural gas field in the Azeri waters of the Caspian Sea.

Maroš Šefčovič, the European official in charge of energy issues, said in a statement emailed to UPI that commercial gas flows to Turkey was a milestone for the diversification of a European market that depends heavily on Russia for natural gas.
 (UPI)
 13/6/18