Caspian Report - Issue 06 - Winter 2014

POLO MAGRI
136
THE OPENING OF SOUTHERN CORRIDOR ON THE ONE
HAND REFLECTS LONG-TERM TRENDS OF ITALIAN
ENERGY AND FOREIGN POLICY AND, ON THE OTHER,
STRENGTHENS THEM SIGNIFICANTLY, ADDING A
FOURTH GAS SUPPLY CHANNEL TO THE ONES ALREADY
FUNCTIONING – FROM NORTHERN EUROPE, NORTHERN
AFRICA AND RUSSIA.
to international trade in hydrocarbons
and the diversification of supply channels
have been and remain the key for
Italy to ensure both economic sustainability
and national energy security. It
is in this framework that the opening
of a supply channel from the Caspian
Sea through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline
(TAP) has become a priority for Italy.
The opening of Southern Corridor on
the one hand reflects long-term trends
of Italian energy and foreign policy and,
on the other, strengthens them significantly,
adding a fourth gas supply
channel to the ones already functioning
– from Northern Europe, Northern
Africa and Russia. Besides the opportunity
to diversify sources and routes,
Italy sees in the SC also an opportunity
to “increase the supply of gas and the
number of suppliers competing in the
Italian market, with benefits to consumers
and businesses in terms of
price competitiveness” (Zanonato, Italian
Minister for Development).
It is not therefore by chance that, ever
since the emerging of the debate
around the possibility of opening an
energy axis from the Caspian to the
EU markets (2003) Italian governments
spared no efforts in order to
put forward Italian candidacy to host
the infrastructure. The Government
adopted thereafter a flexible approach,
shifting the support from ITGI to TAP
(after the exclusion of the first project
from the competition) and showing a
long-lasting political commitment to
the cooperation with their Eastern political
counterparties, regardless of the
nationality of the companies involved.
Diversification of suppliers, diversification
of supply channels and increased
market competition are not the only
benefits that the TAP will ensure Italy.
Indeed, we see the Southern Corridor
as an evolving concept, designed to
benefit from the potential increase
of Azerbaijani gas output as well as
from the future contribution of other
producing countries – being them in
Central Asia, Middle East or Eastern
Mediterranean. The scalability scheduled
for infrastructure running along
the Southern Corridor – from TANAP
to TAP – responds to this vision.
Under this perspective, the Southern
Corridor is fully in line with another
Italian energy policy traditional goal
–achieved in the past in the oil sector
and which seems now to be achievable
also in the gas one: to act as a hub for
the distribution of gas in Central and
Southern Europe, activating export or
transit flows liable.
The fact that among the buyers of the
Shah Deniz gas there are two Italian
companies (Enel and Hera) alongside
French, Swiss, Spanish and German
ones shows the concreteness of this
perspective and feasibility of this goal
– as well as the European value of the
project.
Financial, geopolitical and political
difficulties of this project should not
be underestimated but there is space
for optimism given the relevance of
TAP and the SC for all the countries