Azerbaijan inaugurated on Tuesday a pipeline that will eventually create the first direct route to transport gas from one of the world's largest fields to Europe bypassing Russia, and will feed into the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) in Turkey.
"With this project we are creating a new energy map of Europe," Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in a nationally televised ceremony where he turned on the taps at Sangachal Terminal, located some 55 kilometers (35 miles) southwest of the capital Baku.
The Southern Gas Project aims to transport gas 3,500 kilometers from the Caspian Sea to Europe just as the West is looking to reduce its reliance on Russian energy. The $40-billion (35-billion-euro) project consists of three linked pipelines that will bring gas from the vast Azerbaijani Shah Deniz 2 field across Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy.
By 2020, the Southern Gas Corridor is expected to bring around 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe a year. Another 6 billion cubic meters of gas will go to Turkey.
The South Caucasus Pipeline from Azerbaijan will transport gas to Turkey, where it will feed into TANAP. From Turkey, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline will take the gas on to Italy.
The total investment in Shah Deniz 2 and pipeline infrastructure is more than $40 billion.
Aliyev praised support from the United States, Britain and the European Union and noted "strong regional cooperation between Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia" in building the pipeline. He informed the audience that Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro will also participate in the project at a later phase.
"This project takes into account the interests of everyone -- suppliers of gas, transit countries and consumers," Aliyev said.
"If it were not for the balance of interests then the project would not exist," he said at the ceremony attended by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo and representatives from Southern Gas Corridor partner countries and companies.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also conveyed a message in which he stressed that TANAP, which is an exemplary project for regional cooperation, is the result of a partnership that will change the fate of the region.
"It is of great importance to complete the other legs of Southern Gas Corridor which will provide gas for Europe through an alternative route," Erdoğan said in his message and recalled that the official ceremony for the first gas delivery of TANAP will take place on June 12 in central Anatolian province of Eskişehir.
Turkey imports some 6.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas from Azerbaijan via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline and the amount will go up to 12.6 bcm as TANAP brings in an additional 6 bcm of natural gas. Therefore, the share of Russian gas in Turkey's energy imports will decrease.
TANAP will initially provide 2 bcm of natural gas before gradually reaching 6 bcm by the end of June 2021.