Azerbaijan forecasts the present gas extraction level of 27 billion
cubic meters to double in 2020, the Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of
Industry and Energy, Natig Abbasov, told Trend at a meeting regarding
a memorandum in the energy sphere on Tuesday. The memorandum was
signed by the EU and Azerbaijan.
The gas supplies will allow the Southern Energy Corridor to be filled.
Azerbaijan has 2.2 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves. Azerbaijan
opened a new reserve equivalent to at least 200 billion cubic meters
last year.
Azerbaijan also has the prospective structures Apsheron, Nakhchyvan, Babek.
The Southern Corridor is a priority project for the European Union,
aimed at diversifying routes and sources of energy supplies and
improving energy security of the EU. The Southern Corridor includes
such projects as Nabucco, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, the White
Stream and ITGI (a Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline).
Shah-Deniz is a possible source for the first stage of the projects,
with 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves. Turkmenistan and Iraq
are the main sources of gas in the future.
