2024-03-01 18:52:20
The United States certainly supports the expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor and the agreement between Azerbaijan and the EU to double gas exports.
As Day.Az reports, this was, in particular, said in an exclusive interview with Trend by Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Bureau of Energy Resources Kimberly Harrington, who arrived in Baku to participate in the 10th meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council.
“The United States views the Southern Gas Corridor as an infrastructure that is fundamental to achieving this goal. European energy security is only strengthened by diversification and an increase in the number of improved routes such as the Southern Gas Corridor. We want to ensure that energy is not used as a weapon against our partners and allies. We have already seen this. Recently, more interconnectors have appeared in Europe, including the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector, through which Azerbaijani gas is supplied. The more Azerbaijani gas reaches more European countries, the better. This interconnector operates in a certain territory “, where Russia previously had a near-monopoly. We will continue to support these efforts, and we think that this expansion of the geography of Azerbaijani gas supplies will change the situation for many countries,” she said.
The State Department representative emphasized that the Southern Gas Corridor formed the basis for the creation of the energy bureau.
“The Bureau of Energy Resources serves as the link between energy security, decarbonization and energy access for the State Department. One of the first projects that we promoted, which formed the basis for the creation of our office, was the Southern Gas Corridor. We always say that Azerbaijan is in is in the DNA of our Office, and indeed it is. This Ministerial and COP29 serve two fundamental purposes. The US Government is very proud of the role it has played for over a decade in supporting the Southern Gas Corridor and, of course, its final phases of commissioning into full operation in 2020,” she said.
Harrington noted that she was in Sangachal and saw the pipeline signed by a number of officials, including a representative of the US government.
“This shows that our office’s long-term goal is to strengthen energy security in the region. And that really means diversifying routes and diversifying access so that no country is overly dependent on one energy source. Europe is rightly pursuing some important goals to move away from Russian oil and Russian gas. In fact, one of its main goals is to completely phase out Russian gas by 2027. The more diversity of resources, the more they can help achieve this goal, and we see the Southern Gas Corridor as part of this. I think “that Europe still has work to do to achieve this goal. Our goals for the Southern Gas Corridor are the same now as they were ten years ago when the office was founded to diversify energy resources for our partners and allies,” she said.
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