Baku, April 4, 2025 – The Europe Today: President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev reaffirmed the strategic importance and full operational capacity of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) during his address at the 11th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and the 3rd Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting held in Baku.
“The Southern Gas Corridor works at full capacity. Whether it’s the South Caucasus Pipeline, TANAP, or TAP – the three integral parts of the Corridor are fully packed,” President Aliyev stated, underscoring the corridor’s crucial role in ensuring energy security and diversification of supply routes for Europe.
President Aliyev emphasized that, given the full utilization of the existing infrastructure, expansion of the corridor is now imperative. “Now they work at full capacity. So we need to expand. For that, we will need, of course, financing,” he noted.
Addressing the financial dimension of such expansion, the President called for a reassessment by international financial institutions of their current policies on fossil fuel investments. “We come to a very important point, which we raised on several occasions — that international financial institutions, which decided to stop financing fossil fuel projects, probably, will reconsider their policy,” he said.
The Southern Gas Corridor is a strategic initiative aimed at transporting natural gas from the Caspian Sea region to European markets, thereby enhancing energy diversification and security for the continent. The corridor comprises the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), and plays a pivotal role in Azerbaijan’s energy diplomacy.
The ministerial meetings gathered high-level officials, energy ministers, and international partners to discuss current and future developments in both traditional and green energy sectors, reinforcing Baku’s position as a critical hub for energy cooperation between East and West.
