Turkey and the Southern Corridor after TAP’s Selection as the Main Export Route for Caspian Gas - Saban Kardas

Turkey and the Southern Corridor after TAP’s Selection as the Main Export Route for Caspian Gas

By Saban Kardas

  • Release Date: 2013-07-18
  • Genre: Politics & Current Events

Description

In late June, the consortium developing Azerbaijan’s offshore Shah Deniz natural gas reserves in the Caspian Sea chose the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project (TAP) to transport Azerbaijani gas to European markets from the Turkish border onwards. With this decision, TAP’s rival, Nabucco-West, which was for a long time considered the crown-jewel of the EU’s Southern Corridor, might come to an effective end. Having advocated Nabucco as a strategic priority since the project’s introduction in the early-1990s, and participated in it as an equal stakeholder, Turkey is adjusting its policies to the dramatically transformed reality on the ground.