By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is an extension of the Southern Gas Corridor that takes Azerbaijani natural gas to European markets, has transported 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe in 2021, the pipeline's operator TAP AG reported on the official Twitter page.

Of the total amount of transported gas, over 6.8 billion cubic meters reached Italy and approximately 1.2 billion cubic meters were delivered to Greece and Bulgaria.

Earlier, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in his interview stated that about 19 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas will be exported in 2022. Of this volume, more than 8 billion cubic meters will be exported to Turkey and more than 7 billion cubic meters to Italy. The remaining gas will be divided between Georgia, Bulgaria, and Greece.

"In general, Azerbaijan is expected to produce 45 billion cubic meters of gas. As I mentioned, 19 billion will go to exports and the rest will be spent on re-injection into the oil fields to maintain domestic demand and reservoir pressure," he said.

To recall, Azerbaijan started commercial gas supplies to Europe through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) on December 31, 2020.

The pipeline is supplied by natural gas from the second stage of Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas field development in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea through the South Caucasus Pipeline and the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP). The initial capacity of the pipeline is about 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, with the option to expand the capacity up to 20 billion cubic meters.

The Southern Gas Corridor is an initiative of the European Commission for a natural gas supply route from Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe. The route from Azerbaijan to Europe consists of the South Caucasus Pipeline, TANAP and TAP.