Countries participants of AGRI signed joint Declaration

On June 24, 2015 Azerbaijan, Georgia and Romania signed the Joint Declaration on support of development of Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romanian Interconnector (AGRI) project, which is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, reported the Romanian Energy Ministry.

The document has been signed at the inter-Ministerial meeting in Bucharest by Azerbaijani and Romanian Energy Ministers Natig Aliyev and Andrei Dominique Gerey and Georgian Deputy Energy Minister Mariam Valiashvili.

At the meeting Romanian Energy Minister said that the countries-participants of the project have confirmed their support to development of AGRI project based on the feasibility study.

“We urge the countries-participants of the project to continue contributing into the project development. We would like the companies to seek funding for the next stages of AGRI. We would like to jointly advance the AGRI project in the European Commission for its joining a final list of the projects, which are of great interest for the European Fund of Strategic Investments. We believe that AGRI project could become a component of the Southern Gas Corridor and could contribute to safeguarding energy safety of Europe,” he said.

Azerbaijani Energy Minister Natig Aliyev spoke about economic and social importance of AGRI project and its role in safeguarding energy safety of Europe. Minister also mentioned successful work of SOCAR in Romania and added that its contribution into the Romanian economy is fully supported by the Azerbaijani government.

Georgian Deputy Energy Minister Mariam Valiashvili spoke about importance of the project for Georgia and the support that the country provides to the project.

Joe Murphy, BP Vice President for the Southern Gas Corridor, said that AGRI must be considered as a part of the Southern Gas Corridor and for the efficient implementation of the project it is important to work out legal, technical and economic documents.

* AGRI project envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas via the gas pipelines to the Georgia’s Black Sea coast, where gas will be liquefied at a special terminal and then delivered to the terminal in the Romanian Constanza port by tankers.

Then it will be turned back into gas and used to satisfy needs of Romania and other European countries using the gas infrastructure on the territory of the country.

According to the preliminary estimates, implementation of the project will cost the sides between 1.2 and 4.5 billion Euro (depending on the capacity of the terminals, which could be between 2 and 8 billion cub.m. of gas a year).

AGRI project participants include SOCAR, Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation, Hungarian MVM and Romanian Romgaz. In February 2011 the countries created SC AGRI LING Project Company SRL to implement the project.—0—