Astana, Kazakhstan, Dec.3
By Daniyar Mukhtarov - Trend:
The government of Romania believes that the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romanian Interconnector (AGRI) project will be implemented, Romania's Economy Ministry State Secretary Karoly Borbely told Trend.
"Romanian government strongly believes that the AGRI project will be implemented," he said. "For this purpose, its feasibility study is being worked out at the Ministry of Economy. We expect this work will bring its results in late 2014."
Borbely said that the shareholders of the AGRI project, as well as the government members will make a decision in accordance with the results of the work on the feasibility study in early 2015.
"We are optimistic and look forward to starting the project, since it is undoubtedly a great opportunity for Romania and Europe to increase the number of energy supply sources," said Borbely.
He said the construction of LNG terminals in Europe and in the Black Sea has become relevant, adding that it is a complex issue because of its high cost.
"Therefore, when we have financial details and business plans based on the feasibility study of the AGRI project, we will think about how to deal with the financial side of this project. But today, we believe that the AGRI project will be successful."
AGRI project envisages the transportation of Azerbaijani gas to the Black Sea coast of Georgia via the gas pipelines. Azerbaijani gas delivered to Georgia's Black Sea coast will be liquefied at a special terminal and following this, it will be delivered to a terminal at Romanian port of Constanta with tankers.
Further, it will be brought to the gaseous state and sent via the country's gas infrastructure for meeting the demands of Romania and other European countries.
The cost of the project will vary from 1.2 billion euros to 4.5 billion euros, according to the preliminary estimations. The project's cost will depend on the capacity of terminals that could be equal to 2-8 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
The project's feasibility study is being developed by UK's Penspen which was chosen as a result of a tender.
The participants of the AGRI project are the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), Georgia's Oil and Gas Corporation, as well as MVM (Hungary) and Romgaz (Romania) companies.
Edited by CN