Azerbaijan, Baku, June 1 / Trend /
At a ministerial meeting on the project of Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnecter (AGRI) in Bucharest representatives of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary expressed full support for AGRI, which envisages supply of the Caspian liquefied gas through the Black Sea coast of Georgia to Eastern Europe.
"Representatives of the four countries stood for rapid start of the preparation of the AGRI project's feasibility study (FS) at the ministerial meeting," member of AGRI LNG Co managing team Vitaly Beylarbeyov told Trend on Wednesday.
He said the countries' representatives were familiarized with presentations of commercial companies of Japan, Norway, Turkey, Korea and France, which expressed a desire to prepare the feasibility study of AGRI during the ministerial meeting.
"Tender is planned to be announced for preparation of the feasibility study in summer, 2011," Beylarbeyov said.
At present, the AGRI LNG Co. Board of Directors continues to work on the company's budget and work program, is also engaged in recruitment.
Azerbaijan , Georgia, Romania and Hungary signed a protocol within the implementation of the AGRI project on Feb.14 in Baku. The signed document stressed the need to support the companies participating in the project in attracting the necessary funding for the feasibility study. The paper notes that under the increased work means finding the shortest route of delivery of Azerbaijani gas to European markets, the creation of Interconnector Romania - Hungary (Arad-Szeged).
Earlier, the joint venture was registered in Romania within the AGRI project. The joint company will prepare a feasibility study of the new project and seek funding.
Participants of the project are Azerbaijani SOCAR, Oil and Gas Corporation of Georgia, the Romanian ROMGAZ and Hungarian MVM. Each has a 25 percent shareholding. In the future, Bulgaria also can join the project.
The AGRI project envisages transporting Azerbaijani gas via pipelines to the Black Sea coast of Georgia, where the gas will be liquefied at a special terminal. The gas will then be delivered to a terminal at the Romanian port of Constanta via tankers. Later, the liquefied gas will be brought into the state of natural gas and will be directed towards covering the needs of Romania and other European countries.
It is expected that Turkmenistan, by participating in the project as a supplier, could supply liquefied natural gas across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan for further transit to Europe .
Cost of the AGRI project can vary from 1.2 billion to 4.5 billion euros.