A key part of ensuring secure and affordable supplies of energy to Europeans involves diversifying supply routes. This includes identifying and building new routes that decrease the dependence of EU countries on a single supplier of natural gas and other energy resources.
The Southern Gas Corridor
The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) is a 3 500 km pipeline that supplies gas to south-east European countries from the Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea, off the coast of Azerbaijan. The SGC entered into operation in December 2020.
The SGC is made up of 3 sections, each with its own shareholder structure
- The South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP-X) across Azerbaijan and Georgia
- The Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) across Türkiye
- The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) across Greece, Albania, under the Adriatic Sea and over to Italy
In addition, the SGC can supply Bulgaria and the Balkan/Lower Danube region via the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB).
The SGC delivered 11.7 billion cubic meters of gas to the EU in 2024, a 44% increase since 2021. Azerbaijan’s oil and gas company SOCAR has been supplying gas to 12 countries (including 8 EU Member States): Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Türkiye.
In the context of the REPowerEU plan, the EU is carrying out a number of actions to enable more users to gain access to Azerbaijani gas through the SGC. A Memorandum of Understanding on a Strategic Partnership in the field of energy was concluded by Commission President von der Leyen and Azerbaijani President Aliyev in Baku on 18 July 2022. Under this partnership, the EU is working to increase gas supply, subject to gas availability and market demand, and to facilitate relevant infrastructure upgrades accordingly. The EU is also making progress with various gas infrastructure projects that extend the reach of Azerbaijani gas in the EU and the Western Balkans, such as the Adriatic backbone and the strengthening of the Bulgarian and Romanian systems.
Developing the Mediterranean hub
The creation of a Mediterranean gas hub in the South of Europe will help diversify EU's energy suppliers and routes. To this end, the EU is engaged in an active energy dialogue at political level with North African and Eastern Mediterranean partners.
Taking into account the huge potential of Algeria, both for conventional and unconventional gas resources, as well as the new gas resources in the East Mediterranean and the associated infrastructure development plans, the Mediterranean area can act as a key source and route for supplying gas to the EU.
Israel, Egypt and Cyprus, because of their significant offshore gas reserve, make the Eastern Mediterranean region a strategic partner for the EU in its effort to diversify its gas supply routes. There are several options to bring natural gas from the region to the EU and the world market either by pipeline or as LNG. Notably, there are two Projects of Common Interest (PCIs) in gas involving the Cyprus East Med Pipeline and CyprusGas2EU LNG terminal, where the latter granted significant Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) grants at the end of 2017.
Liquefied natural gas terminals
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imported to Europe through LNG terminals is a source of diversification that contributes to competition in the gas market and security of supply. To adapt to this evolution of the world gas market, in February 2016, the European Commission presented an EU strategy (COM(2016) 49 final) for LNG and gas storage.
New LNG supplies from North America, Australia, Qatar, and East Africa are increasing the size of the global LNG market, and some of these volumes have already reached the European market.
Considering that most of the existing capacity is located in Western Europe, and that internal bottlenecks exist from the Atlantic coast to the East, the EU strategy has identified a limited number of essential ‘projects of common interest’, mainly interconnectors, that would allow market players from all corners of the EU to benefit from LNG. In addition, as is the case in the Baltics and in South-East Europe, a number of LNG regasification units have been identified as Projects of Common Interest under the Regulation on guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure ((EU) 347/2013).