7th Ministerial Meeting of Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council was held

The 7th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council was held in Baku on February 11 in videoconference format. 
The ministers, deputy ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Italy, UK, USA, Greece, Romania, Turkmenistan, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia and high-level representatives from various government agencies, as well as Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy and Oliver Varhelyi, European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, and the representatives from companies participating in the project and international financial institutions attended at the event.
The 7th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council continued with two plenary sessions dedicated to the work done on the project, as well as the prospects of the project after the opening ceremony and welcoming speeches of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and  Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy, co-chair of Advisory Council. 
The first session on "The Southern Gas Corridor: Achievements, Completion of TAP Project and Start of Gas Supply from Azerbaijan to Europe"    started with the speeches of Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov and European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi. 
Within the plenary session, reports were presented  and presentations were made on the completion of the Southern Gas Corridor project by Managing Director of TAP AG Luca Schieppati, CEO of TANAP Saltuk Düzyol, General Manager of Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company Lidya Salahova, Regional President of BP for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Gary Jones.
Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Turkey Fatih Donmez, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of State Kurt Donnelly, the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Azerbaijan Baroness Emma Nicholson, Director General for Infrastructures and Energy Systems of Ministry of Economic Development of the Republic of Italy Gilberto Dialuce, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Natela Turnava, State Minister of Turkmenistan, Chairman of the Turkmengas State Concern  Batyr Amanov, Minister of Environment and Energy of the Hellenic Republic Kostas Skrekas, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Bulgaria Temenuzhka Petkova, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Energy of Albania Ilir Bejtja  made a speech at the session. 
At the second plenary session on "The Southern Gas Corridor Next Phase: Prospects And Challenges", Head of Unit of Energy of European Commission Florian Ermacora, Vice-president for field development of SOCAR Yashar Latifov made a speech and spoke about Azerbaijan's strategic role, importance of the project's contribution to diversification of energy routes and sources in Europe.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mining and Energy of the Republic of Serbia Zorana Mihajlovic, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Energy of Romania Virgil Daniel Popescu, Minister of Capital Investments of Montenegro Mladen Bojanić, Minister of Economy of the Republic of North Macedonia Kreshnik Bekteshi, State Secretary of Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of the Republic of Croatia Ivo Milatic made speeches at the session. 
A joint statement of the co-chairs on the outcomes of the 7th Ministerial Meeting of Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council was adopted.