Azernews.Az

nBaku and Chisinau will discuss by the end of 2011 prospects for Moldova’s joining the AGRI and Nabucco projects that seek to export gas from the resource-rich Caspian region to Europe, reports say.

The reports quoted Moldovan government sources as saying that agreement to hold the talks was reached during Moldovan Prime Minister Vladimir Filat’s meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev last week held on the sidelines of the Eastern Partnership summit in Warsaw. The issue is to be discussed during Filat’s visit to Azerbaijan in late 2011.

The Moldovan prime minister said earlier that Chisinau had "strategic" interest in the AGRI project -- which aims to transport Azerbaijani gas to Romania through Georgia -- as dependence on a single source of gas supplies damages the country’s energy security.

The AGRI project envisages transporting Azerbaijani gas by a pipeline to the Black Sea coast of Georgia where it 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.

Three capacity options of the AGRI project are being considered - 2 billion cubic meters of gas per year, 5 billion cubic meters and 8 billion cubic meters. 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 AGRI project in Baku last September.

The Nabucco pipeline project -- another option for gas exports during the second stage of developing Azerbaijan’s Shahdaniz field in the Caspian Sea, which is due to begin in 2017 -- is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries, bypassing Russia. The project's participants include the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE.