Azerbaijan, Romania mull energy cooperation
By Nigar Abbasova
Azerbaijan and Romania, the countries which enjoy good cooperation in multiple areas, are keen to strengthen energy links.
The two countries cooperate in the implementation of Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector (AGRI) energy project, which is aimed at diversifying the energy supply sources of the European Union and involves the supply of Azerbaijani natural gas to Romania and into Central Europe.
The project was high on agenda during the meeting between Energy Minister Natig Aliyev and Romania’s Ambassador Dan lancu on November 3.
Aliyev said that important steps are being taken as part of energy cooperation to implement the AGRI project, designed to supply Azerbaijani gas to Europe via Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania-Hungary route.
The minister underlined that relations between Azerbaijan and Romania are developing on the basis of strategic partnership. The ambassador, in turn, noted that the diversification policy is relevant in the present circumstances.
AGRI project envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas to the Black Sea coast of Georgia via gas pipelines. Azerbaijani gas delivered to Georgia's Black Sea coast will be liquefied at a special terminal and following this, it will be delivered in tankers to a terminal at the Romanian port of Constanta. Further, it will be brought to the gaseous state and sent via Romanian gas infrastructure for meeting the demands of Romania and other European countries. The cost of the project will vary from €1.2 billion to €4.5 billion, according to the preliminary estimates.
The participants of the AGRI project are the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), Georgia's Oil and Gas Corporation, as well as MVM (Hungary) and Romgaz (Romania). The parties established the SC AGRI LNG Project Company SRL in February 2011 for the implementation of the project.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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