The Caspian Convention has increased the attractiveness of the Southern Gas Corridor
July 01, 2018 | 12:25 |3336
Completion of the draft convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea significantly increased the investment attractiveness of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). Thus, the World Bank granted a $ 750 million loan to CJSC Southern Gas Corridor for financing the construction of the Trans-Anatolian pipeline (TANAP). TANAP is intended for the supply of gas from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey and further to the Greek border, where its continuation will be the Trans Adriatic Gas Pipeline (TAP). It is expected that through the TANAP and TAP gas pipelines by 2019-2020 gas from the Caspian region will begin to flow to the countries of southern Europe. Apparently, the project "Southern Gas Corridor" enters the "golden age" of its implementation. Experts believe that SGC will no longer lack financial resources, since, in the light of recent events, its investment attractiveness has increased many times. This project was very attractive, in many respects, because work on the convention on the legal status of the Caspian came to the finish line. The news that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to sign the Caspian Convention serves as a "signal" for international financial institutions. This decision tells investors: invest in SGC, because its resource base is likely to be gas reserves of Turkmenistan - the fourth in the world after Russian, Qatar and Iran. The signing of the convention will allow the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline to be laid on the seabed, allowing the which Turkmen natural gas to "flow" into the Southern Gas Corridor. SGC has such favorable economic preconditions as the capacious European market, the need for gas and the availability of colossal gas resources. And, of course, one can not ignore here that SGC has a political "feeding", because the European Union believes that diversification of gas supplies to European countries is a necessary condition for ensuring the energy security of the Old World. That is, the SGC project is not only economically advantageous, but politically necessary for Europe. Turkmenistan, as a conscientious seller of natural gas, does not care about political moments. This is the case when they repeat a well-known phrase from an equally famous film: "Nothing personal, only business." So, after the presidents of the Caspian countries meet in Aktau in Kazakhstan and sign the convention on the legal status of the Caspian, the Trans-Caspian pipeline construction project will also not lack funds. Figuratively speaking, profitability in similar projects can be compared to a pouring cash rain. I think that many investors will want to "get wet" under it, and therefore will stand in line to invest their money in the construction of an underwater gas pipeline. And they will be right.Nury AMANOV
