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5 December 2016

By Elena Kosolapova - Trend

Azerbaijan and Spain will play an important role in ensuring energy security of Europe, Jose Luis Diez Juarez, Charge d'Affaires of Spain to Azerbaijan told Trend in an interview.

"Azerbaijani Shah Deniz 2 project and its connection with Europe is the only project now that will supply gas from new source to Europe. Thus, the strategic importance of this project is great," he said.

Diez noted that there are many countries in Eastern Europe that get gas only from one supplier – Russia and it is very important for them to have more gas sources in order not to be dependent on one supplier.

"So I think the supplies from Azerbaijan will be very important for Eastern Europe and some Central European countries as well," charge d'affaires said.

Spain, in turn, is an important gas hub, because a lot of gas comes from different countries to Spain and then to other European countries, Diez noted. He reminded that Spain already has two gas pipelines from Algeria, which is the main gas supplier to the country, and ten more countries provide Spain with liquefied gas. Moreover Spain is connected to the European networks and a new bigger pipeline called MidCat is planned to be built from Spain to France, which will considerably increase the cross-border gas exchange capacity between the two countries, according to Diez.

"MidCat and the Southern gas corridor are considered as priority projects by the European Union for the European strategy of energy security. So at the two ends of Europe we will have two projects that are very important in terms of gas supply diversification - Azerbaijan as a producer and Spain as a distributor," Spanish diplomat said.

Diez also noted that Spain already has diversified gas supply and Azerbaijani gas will not reach Spain even though Spanish company Enagas is involved in the construction of Trans-Adriatic Pipeline which will pump Azerbaijani gas to Europe.

The Southern Gas Corridor envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian Sea region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor project. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage. As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).