BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 7. Montenegro is open to investments from Azerbaijan in the development of the country's green energy, Ervin Ibrahimović, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Capital Investments of Montenegro, told Trend in an exclusive interview.
Ibrahimović emphasized that, to date, Montenegro already has been having effective cooperation with investors from Azerbaijan.
"Considering Montenegro’s potential in wind, solar, as well as hydro power, we are working on the development of the renewable energy industry in our country, and we are very open to foreign investments, especially from Azerbaijani investors, because we had a great experience with investors from our country. ," he added.
The minister also pointed out that not only productive partnership, but also friendly relations have been established between Azerbaijan and Montenegro.
"We are happy to have Azerbaijan for our friends, and we certainly consider all the support that we can get from our friends, and one of those is also gas which would insure Montenegro’s energy independence and sustainability. We have been closely cooperating with Azerbaijan for many years. In particular, we have signed many memoranda of understanding with the country and local companies. We are ready to facilitate the construction of a pipeline on the territory of Montenegro, through which gas from Azerbaijan will continue to reach European countries," Ibrahimovic explained.
He also pointed out that Montenegro is ready to become a transit country for gas supplies from Azerbaijan to Europe.
Meanwhile, Montenegro can get access to Azerbaijani gas through the Ionian-Adriatic pipeline.
IAP is planned to be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which, in turn, is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), to transport gas to the countries of the South-East Europe.
The pipeline with total length of 516 kilometers will stretch from Albania through Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to split in Croatia. The capacity of the pipeline will amount to 5 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
TAP has already signed relevant memorandums with the developers of this project, in particular with such companies as Plinacro (Croatia), BH-Gas (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Geoplin Plinovodi (Slovenia), as well as with the governments of Montenegro and Albania.
At the same time, a TAP-IAP joint working group has been created that gathers regularly to synchronize the timing of both pipeline projects and coordinate the technical issues of interconnection.
