Economy and energy ministers of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and
Hungary (participants of AGRI project) will meet in Bucharest on May
26-27 for a feasibility study of the project, Business Georgia
reports.
Azerbaijani Minister of Industry and Energy Natig Aliyev said that
five countries want to prepare the feasibility studies. Earlier
proposals of the feasibility studies were to be organized using own
finances or an EU grant.
The ministers discussed a third version of the studies, using finances
of companies involved in the AGRI or future investments. This version
has already been realized by the INOGEIT and TACIS companies with
other projects of the Caspian and Black Sea. This includes the
gas-pipeline from Tbilisi to the Black Sea.
Bucharest will also host the council of directors of the AGRI project
on May 26-27.
Vitaly Belyakov, Vice-President of SOCAR (State Oil Company of the
Azerbaijani Republic) and an administrative manager of the AGRI LNG
Co., said that the work on AGRI is in progress. Japanese, Korean,
Turkish, French and Norwegian oil and gas companies expressed
interest.
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary signed a protocol on
realization of AGRI on February 14. The project includes finding of
the shortest way of gas transport to the European market, by
establishing the Romania-Hungary interconnector (Arad-Sheged).
The joint-stock company consists of ROMGAZ (Romania), Georgian Oil and
Gas Company, SOCAR (Azerbaijan) and MVM with a 25%-share each.
Gas will be transported from Azerbaijan to the Georgian Black Sea
coast, liquified and transported to Romania's Port Constanta. Then it
will be converted into natural gas and sent to the European market.
Turkmenistan may provide liquefied gas.
AGRI is worth 1.2 or 4.5 billion euro.
