Azerbaijan and Turkey launched a gas pipeline between Igdir in eastern Turkey and Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic on Wednesday.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the gas pipeline inauguration ceremony via videoconference.
“The project, which we are opening today, will ensure the energy security of Nakhchivan,” Aliyev said.
Gas flowing from Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic via Turkey will solve the autonomous republic’s gas supply problem, he said.
In turn, Erdogan said that the pipeline will supplement “our previous strategic initiatives in the energy sector,”.
“This project will meet Nakhchivan’s natural gas needs in the next 30 years,” he said.
Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said at the ceremony that the project will help diversify gas supplies to Nakhchivan and improve welfare of residents of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and Igdir.
“Yet another feature of the project is that the pipeline’s maximum capacity today is 730 million cubic meters per year, but could expand in future,” Shahbazov said.
The pipeline also can be operated in reverse mode, which speaks volume about its great importance for the region, he said.
It was reported earlier that the groundbreaking ceremony for the pipeline in the Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, which does not border Azerbaijan, took place in September 2023. The 16-inch pipeline from Igdir to the autonomous republic’s Sadarak district is 97.5 kilometers long, including 17.5 kilometers in Azerbaijan and 80 kilometers in Turkey. In Turkey, the pipeline has become a continuation of a gas main from Eastern Anatolia to Igdir.
In future, a minor upgrade will allow to increase the pipeline’s capacity to 5 million cubic meters daily, or 1.8 billion cubic meters per year.
SOCAR Midstream Operations, a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic, and Turkey’s Botas implemented the project.
