RIGA, May 21. /TASS/ The Eastern Partnership summit will support the construction of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is to link the EU with the Caspian region bypassing Russia, says the summit’s final draft statement obtained by TASS.
The document states that the participants in the meeting "hailed the progress in the construction of energy infrastructure projects, including the Southern Gas Corridor, with a special role in its construction allotted to Azerbaijan."
"The participants in the summit also welcomed the ongoing work to expand the South Caucasus, Trans-Anatolian and Trans-Adriatic pipelines," says the final declaration’s section dedicated to energy security.
According to a TASS source in the delegation of a Western European country, "the part of the final document dedicated to the gas transport infrastructure is unlikely to be changed, since it drew no objections from the delegations taking part in the summit."
The Southern Gas Corridor is a system of existing gas pipelines and those under construction, which, after the modernization, should link the EU with the Caspian region bypassing Russia. It includes the South Caucasus pipeline, the Trans-Anatolian pipeline and the Trans-Adriatic pipeline. The Southern Gas Corridor passes through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Albania and Italy. The offshore block Shah Deniz -2 in the Caspian Sea is considered to be the main source of gas for it. However, if the Trans-Caspian pipeline is incorporated into the project, an opportunity will emerge to transport the Turkmen gas along the Southern Gas Corridor.
The Southern Gas Corridor has replaced the Nabucco project popular in the past decade, whose implementation failed due to the back of investment.