Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary expressed their full support for the AGRI project seeking to supply Caspian liquefied gas through Georgia to Eastern Europe at a recent ministerial in Bucharest.

"Representatives of the four countries spoke in favor of a quick start of the preparation of the AGRI project’s feasibility study at the ministerial meeting," Vitaly Beylarbayov of Azerbaijan's state energy firm Socar, who sits on AGRI LNG Co. steering board, told the Baku-based Trend news agency on Wednesday.

He said the countries’ representatives heard presentations from companies of Japan, Norway, Turkey, Korea and France, which offered to prepare the AGRI feasibility study.

"A tender is planned to be announced for the preparation of the feasibility study in the summer," Beylarbayov said.

He said further that the AGRI project could be implemented within five years. "In the future, most likely, after 2017-2020, Azerbaijan will be able to supply gas both through AGRI and Nabucco."

Beylarbayov said AGRI is not a rival to Nabucco or any other project, but "supplements them".

AGRI LNG Co. board chairman Cornelius Condrea said a number of companies have expressed interest in developing the feasibility study for AGRI, including Flex LNG, GE Oil & Gas, Kogas, Penspen, Technip, and Totalgaz.

It is expected that Turkmenistan, participating in the project as a supplier, would deliver liquefied natural gas across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan for its further transit to Europe.

The AGRI project envisages transporting Azerbaijani gas to the Black Sea coast of Georgia where the gas will be liquefied at an LNG terminal. Further, the LNG will be transported by tankers to the Romanian port of Constanta and then, in the form of natural gas, will be supplied to customers in Romania and other European countries.

The AGRI project cost may vary from 1.2 billion to 4.5 billion euros.

Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary signed an agreement on the project in Baku last September.