Energy Security

The Opening of the Southern Gas Corridor

Download: Energy Security Research Brief No. 2 January 2021 (11 pages, 315KB)

Title: The Opening of the Southern Gas Corridor
Author: Mariana Liakopoulou
Series: Energy Security Program Research Brief No. 2
Date: January 2021

The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) is a 3,500-kilometre network of three pipelines: the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), Trans- Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). The SGC’s implementation seeks to satisfy the EU’s strategic imperative, following disruptions of gas supplies from Russia via the Ukraine transit route in 2006 and 2009, to access new sources of gas in the Middle East and the Caspian regions. This research note aims to outline the benefits of this cross-border project for Southeast Europe and shed light on options for its expansion, as well as its role in the decarbonization of the European gas sector.

Mariana Liakopoulou
Mariana Liakopoulou is a research analyst focusing on natural gas security of supply, geopolitics and decarbonization in the European and Eurasian energy markets. She serves as Research Fellow in Energy Security with the NATO Association of Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada). She is also Editor-in-Chief of the Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Energy Transitions Series (London, U.K.). In that capacity, she oversees and contributes to the drafting of “The Palgrave Handbook of Zero Carbon Energy Systems and Energy Transitions”, a book project aiming to provide an inter- and multi-disciplinary comprehensive analysis, knowledge and overview of zero-carbon energy systems, energy transitions and related areas. Formerly, Mariana was a consultant and member of the Roster of Experts of the Energy Community Secretariat (Vienna, Austria). Before that, she was a non-resident Research Fellow in Energy Security and Geopolitics with the Caspian Policy Center (Washington D.C.) and a member of the Strategy and Communication Team of the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (Ljubljana, Slovenia). Her publication record comprises works for an array of industry sources, including the International Association for Energy Economics, the United States Association for Energy Economics, Natural Gas World, Gulf Intelligence and European Gas Hub. She is moreover frequently quoted in the media (e.g., Bloomberg, Deutsche Welle). Mariana holds a Master’s in International Relations and European Studies from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her Master’s thesis looks into the Caspian legal status and riparian producers’ outlook with regard to the European Commission’s strategy towards the Fourth/Southern Gas Corridor. She is fluent in English, French, Greek and Russian and has elementary knowledge of Ukrainian.