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Minister: â€œTransportation of natural Azeri gas to Europe will be realized earlier than the liquefied gasâ€

29 February 2012 09:32 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijanâ€™s Minister of Industry and Energy Natig Aliyev says financial issues of the project have already been solved and after preparation of feasibility study, the project will be implemented: â€œFrom technical viewpoint it is easy to realize this project. Tender must be held for preparation of feasibility study. 7 companies have shown interest to it, but our partners had rejected it for some reasonsâ€.

â€œAGRI project is important for Azerbaijan from political standpoint. The project will for the first time let to construct liquefied natural gas terminal in the Black Sea; liquefied gas will be delivered from Kulevi or Supsa to all directions â€“ Europe and Black Sea countries. Ukraine shows special interest to this project. We have held some meetings with them. They decided to build terminal in Odessa. This terminal has been considered not for Azeri gas, but for liquefied gas from other directions, especially Arabian countries. I think that, deliver of natural Azeri gas to Europe will be realized earlier than liquefied gasâ€, added minister.

Aliyev reminded that, Romania wanted EU to allocate funds for AGRI project and preparation of feasibility study on the account of this fund: â€œBut I doubted. EU has more priority projects in energy sector and it was strange that, it supports another. Therefore, Romania, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Hungary decided to allocate fund and prepare the feasibility study. Romanian side offered to hold presentation of project for EU Energy Commission. This had to be held last year, it was delayed until May, 2012, due to several reasonsâ€.

Remind that, On 13 April 2010, the Minister of Industry and Energy of Azerbaijan Natig Aliyev, Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business Environment of Romania Adriean Videanu and Georgian Energy Minister Alexander Khetaguri signed a memorandum on implementation of the project and establishment of the project company headquartered in Bucharest. The project is developed by AGRI LNG Co formed by Romgaz, State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation, and MVM. This is possible that also Bulgaria can join the project.

The Azerbaijanâ€“Georgiaâ€“Romania Interconnector (AGRI) is a proposed project to transport Azerbaijani natural gas to Romania and further to Central Europe. Natural gas would be transported by the pipeline from Sangachal Terminal in Azerbaijan to the Kulevi Terminal at the Black Sea coast of Georgia. In Kulevi, the liquefied natural gas export terminal (LNG plant) would be built. Liquefied natural gas will be transported by LNG tankers to the ConstanÅ£a terminal in Romania. After degasification natural gas will be delivered through the existing gas grid to Romania and other European countries. Alternative to the transportation of liquefied natural gas is transportation of compressed natural gas.

Capacity of the interconnector is expected to be 7 billion cubic metres (250 billion cubic feet) of natural gas per year, of which 2 billion cubic metres (71 billion cubic feet) will be consumed in Romania. The project is expected to cost â‚¬4â€“6 billion.