U.S., EU stress worth of Southern Corridor

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- The United States and the European Union said they were looking to the conclusion of agreements from Azerbaijan on natural gas reserves.

Project consortiums managing the Nabucco, the Interconnector Turkey-Greece, and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, in October submitted proposals to Azerbaijan. Baku said it would deliver as much as 350 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year from its Shah Deniz-2 project in the Caspian Sea through whichever project it picks.

The U.S. State Department said it was looking forward to the conclusion of agreements from the energy companies managing Shah Deniz-2, "which could ultimately open multiple sources of gas for the Southern Corridor."

The statement follows a meeting in Washington of the U.S.-EU Energy Council. Both sides during the bilateral meeting discussed strategic energy issues, noting an October gas agreement between Turkey and Azerbaijan brought the Southern Corridor "one step closer to being launched."

Europe sees the Southern Corridor as a way to break Russia's grip on the regional energy sector. A 2009 dispute between Kiev and Moscow prompted Russian energy company Gazprom to cut gas supplies to Ukraine, which hosts most of the Russian natural gas bound for European markets.

The bilateral energy council said Russia played an "indispensable" role in the European energy sector but called on Moscow "to promote further market opening in the energy sector."