Azernews.Az

BAKU – The Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector (AGRI) project will pave the way for gas supplies to all European countries, the Azerbaijani energy minister said Monday.

Natig Aliyev said the AGRI project "would allow to transport gas not only to Romania, but also to many other European countries, including Hungary, Bulgaria as well as from the Bosporus Straits to Turkey".

He added that Ukraine was also interested in the project.

The Azerbaijani energy minister’s statement came after Azerbaijani, Georgian and Romanian officials discussed exports of Azerbaijan’s liquefied gas to Europe in Baku.

Under the AGRI project, Azerbaijan’s gas will be supplied via pipelines to the Georgia’s Black Sea coast, to be liquefied and further transported by tankers to the Romanian port of Constanta. The gas will be transported to consumers in Romania and other European countries.

The Azerbaijani, Georgian and Romanian presidents are due to sign a joint statement on the implementation of the AGRI project at an energy summit to be held in Baku on Tuesday. The summit is to be attended by the European Commission's Director General for Energy, Philip Lowe.

Minister Aliyev said three options are on the agenda – supplying 2bn cubic meters of gas per year, 5bn cubic meters or 8bn cubic meters.

"Depending on this [the volume of supplies], capital investments will vary -- from 1.2 billion euros to 4.5 billion euros. Therefore, discussions are still ahead and issues to be reviewed remain. Once these issues have been resolved, the gas transportation issue will materialize."

The expected time frame of the project is 20 months. But Aliyev said that only after a feasibility study is developed, the final figures, including the terms and the amount of investment, will become clear.

Aliyev noted that the project will be funded not by the participating countries, but by interested companies.

The project will be operated by the Azerbaijani-Georgian-Romanian joint venture, in which each party will hold an equal stake.

However, according to Aliyev, the ratio may change in case of other countries’ possible involvement in the project.

Romania, Azerbaijan and Georgia signed an agreement in Bucharest on April 13 to set up the joint venture.

Aliyev dismissed the media reports saying that the AGRI project may be viewed as a rival to the Nabucco pipeline.

"Nabucco is an absolutely different project, it is of large scale and envisions supplies of up to 31 billion cubic meters of gas annually, which is to be delivered not only from the Caspian region and Central Asia, but also from Iran, Iraq, Egypt and other countries. Therefore, the AGRI project can’t be considered an alternative to it, as it aims to deliver small volumes of gas that would meet the needs of only Romania and a number of other countries."

The Nabucco pipeline project aims to decrease the European Union’s dependence on Russian imports by bringing Caspian gas to a hub in Austria via the Balkans. The gas would be shipped to Europe via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

During the ministers’ meeting, it was also announced that Hungary is joining the AGRI project. Georgia's Energy Minister Alexander Khetaguri said this brings the number of European Union countries importing Azerbaijani gas to two.

"The project will expand in the future and it will be one of the EU’s first projects aiming to diversify gas supplies," the Georgian minister said.

Operations on connecting the Romanian and Hungarian gas networks are to be commenced in late 2010. It will allow to transport gas via these countries to Europe’s gas distribution hub in Baumgarten, Austria.

The AGRI memorandum, signed in Bucharest, stipulates along with connecting the Romanian and Hungarian gas networks the construction of a gas liquefaction plant in Georgia and a regasification terminal in Romania.