Azerbaijan and Turmenistan are putting their difference behind them
Friendship deal buoys fresh Caspian hopes
Having settled a 30-year field demarcation dispute with Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan is cheerleading for a second phase of the Southern Gas Corridor
Sentiment in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku has been on an upbeat trajectory in early 2021. Even declining oil production at its Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) fields in 2020, where output fell by 10pc to 175mn bl, has failed to put a dampener on Azeri optimism. Having secured an emphatic military victory over Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, the southern Caucasus oil and gas producer ended last year by completing the first phase of the 16bn m³/yr Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) pipeline system, which is sending Caspian gas 3,500km from the Shah Deniz field to Europe. First gas to Greece and Bulgaria arrived on 31 December. 32pc – Jan/Feb increase in Azeri gas exports Gas e
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