BAKU: Azerbaijan inaugurated on Tuesday part of a pipeline complex that will eventually create the first direct route to transport Caspian gas from one of the world’s largest fields to Europe bypassing Russia.

“With this project we are creating a new energy map of Europe,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in a televised ceremony where he turned on the taps at Sangachal Terminal, a gas processing facility located some 55 kilometres (35 miles) southwest of the capital Baku.

The Southern Gas Corridor aims to transport gas 3,500 kilometres from the Caspian Sea to Europe through three interconnected pipelines as the West is looking to reduce its reliance on Russian energy.

Aliyev praised support from the United States, Britain and the European Union and noted “strong regional cooperation between Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia” in implementing the project involving three pipelines.

“This project takes into account the interests of everyone – suppliers of gas, transit countries and consumers,” Aliyev said.

“If it were not for the balance of interests then the project would not exist,” he said at the ceremony attended by foreign dignitaries including Opec Secretary General Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Energy Resources Sandra Oudkirk said President Donald Trump supported the project, saying it would help ensure Europe’s energy security.

“The European Union needs to further diversify its import capabilities to satisfy its future energy needs,” said for his part Yury Sentyurin, who heads up the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.

He said seven countries and 11 companies were involved.

The $40bn (35bn euro) project consists of three linked pipelines that will bring gas from the vast Azerbaijani Shah Deniz 2 field across Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy.

By 2020, the Southern Gas Corridor is expected to bring around 10bn cubic meters of natural gas to Europe a year. Another 6bn cubic metres of gas will go to Turkey.

The South Caucasus Pipeline from Azerbaijan will transport gas to Turkey, where it will feed into Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline, or TANAP, which is expected to be formally launched next month.

From Turkey, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline will take the gas on to Italy.

The total investment in Shah Deniz 2 and pipeline infrastructure is estimated at more than $40 billion.

Ilham Shaban, the head of the Oil Research Center in Baku, said the project would help turn the oil-rich South Caucasus nation into a key gas player.

“Since 2007 Azerbaijan has been selling its gas only on the regional level,” Shaban told AFP.

“The infrastructure will allow it to ramp up supplies of Azerbaijani gas with each year and export 31bn cubic meters of gas annually in 10 years.”

But many activists have slammed the project, saying Western governments have turned a blind eye to rights violations in Azerbaijan and charging that it would serve to enrich Aliyev’s family.

“Azerbaijan should make its contribution to not only Europe’s energy security but also to the business of defending human rights,” prominent activist Anar Mamedli told AFP.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2018