Azernews.Az

The consortium in charge of the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania-Hungary Interconnector (AGRI) project has announced a tender for proposals to prepare a feasibility study which aims to assess the technical, financial and economical viability of the energy project, Azerbaijan's state energy firm SOCAR, an AGRI shareholder, said in a statement published on Monday.

The AGRI project envisions 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.

SC AGRI LNG Project Company SRL (AGRI) invited all the companies with necessary experience and capability to carry out the feasibility study to submit their proposals by January 19, 2012. The terms of the tender are available at http://agrilng.com/agrilng/Home/Actualitati.

Besides SOCAR, the shareholders of the AGRI project are Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation, Hungary’s MVM and Romanian Romgaz. The AGRI Company board of directors is chaired by SOCAR Deputy Vice-President Vitaliy Baylarbayev.

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.