Ministerial meeting as part of SGC Advisory Council gets underway in Baku

The eighth ministerial within the framework of the Advisory Council on the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) has kicked off in Baku.

Report informs that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is attending the event.

The meeting is attended by European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Olivér Várhelyi, high-ranking officials of the United States, UK, Turkey, Georgia, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine and Turkmenistan.

BP, BOTASH, TPAO, TANAP, TAP, SNAM, Fluxys, ICGB, Romgaz, SACE, SGC, Enagas, Uniper, TotalEnergies, Equinor, Lukoil, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and development, the European Investment Bank and other structures are also represented in the event.

The event will feature plenary sessions on the expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor towards new energy markets, including the countries of the Western Balkans, energy transition from hydrocarbon fuels, and measures to reduce emissions of methane to carbon neutrality: paths, challenges, schedules.

A presser following the results of the meeting is planned.

The SGC, which includes the development of the Shah Deniz field and a gas pipeline chain starting in Azerbaijan and stretching to southern Italy, was created with the aim of diversifying natural gas supplies to the European Union (EU) and reducing the number of EU countries with a single source of supply. The last European section of the SCG - the Trans Adriatic Gas Pipeline (TAP), through which commercial deliveries began on December 31, 2020, allowed the start of supplying Greece, Bulgaria, and Southern Italy with Caspian gas.