Azeri President Ilham Aliyev launched on Tuesday the Southern Gas Corridor. This pipeline network

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev launched on Tuesday the Southern Gas Corridor. This pipeline network will for the first time provide a direct route for Azeri gas to Europe. The $45 billion project draws on 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas in the Shah Deniz II field. The 3,500 km pipeline will run though Turkey, Bulgaria, the Western Balkans to Italy. When fully operative, in 2020, it will provide 10 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe. Supported by the EU, the project is designed to cut dependency on Russian gas and pipelines.