By Ayya Lmahamad

As part of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov and EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Vargelyi discussed bilateral energy dialogue.

The parties emphasized the importance of intensive contacts on the Energy Dialogue's directions for expanding the Southern Gas Corridor into new energy markets.

They shared information about the collaboration on decarbonization, energy transition and renewable energy, energy efficiency, electricity export, hydrogen, and energy storage technologies.

Furthermore, the parties agreed to continue discussions with the European Commission and Western Balkan countries in order to resolve issues arising from potential gas supplies to the Western Balkans as part of the Southern Gas Corridor expansion.

The Southern Gas Corridor is an initiative of the European Commission to build a natural gas supply route from the Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe.

The South Caucasus Pipeline, the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline link Azerbaijan to Europe (TAP). The pipeline is powered by natural gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea's second stage.

Azerbaijan started commercial gas supplies to Europe via this route, with the completion of the TAP construction on December 31, 2020.

During the pipeline's first year of operation, Azerbaijan supplied 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas to European markets, rather than the planned 5 billion cubic meters. Azerbaijan intends to supply 9 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe through the Southern Gas Corridor by 2022.