Azerbaijan and the Southern Gas Corridor to Europe: Implications for U.S. and European Energy Security

Azerbaijan and the Southern Gas Corridor to Europe: Implications for U.S. and European Energy Security

 

On Friday, September 13, The Jamestown Foundation hosted an event at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace entitled, “Azerbaijan and the Southern Gas Corridor to Europe: Implications for U.S. and European Energy Security.” The event consisted of three panels, which discussed the game-changing nature of the opening of a new energy transit route into Europe, implications for Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as U.S. and EU policy regarding the Southern Gas Corridor and European energy security. Jamestown’s successful event attracted about 100 attendees from the policymaking community, government, the corporate sector as well as academia. 

The first panel focused on Azerbaijan’s efforts to open a separate transit route for Caspian energy exports to Europe. Discussants included Jamestown Senior Fellow Vladimir Socor, who presented an in-depth analysis of Azerbaijan’s Trans-Anatolian Pipeline project, which will traverse Turkey and connect with EU member Bulgaria; Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR representative Rauf Mammadov, who described his company’s business strategy related to the Southern Corridor and entering the market in Southeastern Europe; as well as Gulmira Rzayeva of the Azerbaijani think tank Center for Strategic Studies, who spoke on the commercial and political implications of the selection of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to direct Caspian basin gas to the Italian market. 

The second panel included focused on the implications of the Southern Corridor to Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean region. Greg Saunders, a senior director for BP, provided a detailed overview of the actual sources of Caspian energy resources, the proposed transit routes to Europe as well as those already constructed, and the breakdown of the European markets that these resources will reach. European energy consultant Anthony Livanios described how the discovery of large offshore natural gas fields around Cyprus and Israel can feed into European markets. He also explored the implications for Azerbaijan’s purchase of Greece’s pipeline network. Margarita Assenova, Jamestown’s Director of Programs for the Balkans, Caucasus & Central Asia, detailed the energy security situation in Bulgaria and the Balkans, including Russian efforts to dominate these markets through means such as the South Stream Pipeline. 

The final panel featured current and former government officials from Europe and the United States, who discussed U.S. and EU interests in the Southern Corridor’s launch. Christian Burgsmuller, a representative of the EU delegation to the U.S., gave Brussels stance on how TAP would fit into plans for ensuring greater European energy security. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Amos Hochstein provided the U.S. perspective and gave a background on Washington’s behind-the-scenes efforts at diversifying Europe’s energy sources and transit routes. Finally, Ambassador Matthew Bryza concluded the discussion by noting that the selection of TAP to transit Azerbaijani gas to Europe was not the end of the story, but only the beginning of the opening of a new energy transit route to America’s European allies. He predicted that once the first gas began to flow westward from the Caspian basin, other players, including Turkmenistan and perhaps Iraqi Kurdistan, would see the Southern Corridor as a viable direction for their own energy exports, thus helping to diversify the markets of those European countries still dominated by Gazprom.

 *To watch the full video of the event, as well as read the speaker biographies, please click here.http://www.jamestown.org/press/events/video-azerbaijan-and-the-southern-gas-corridor-to-europe-implications-for-us-and-european-energy-security/