Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept.21 / Trend, E. Ismayilov /
A joint venture will be created within one or two months, which will deal with the financing and preparation of a feasibility study for a project on Azerbaijani liquefied gas supplies to Ukraine, a senior SOCAR representative said.
"The project envisages gas supply, the assessment of establishing gas supply infrastructure from Baku to the Georgian coast, gas liquefaction and ensuring its supply to Ukraine," the source said.
Construction of a gas liquefaction plant in Ukraine is not a part of this project, the SOCAR representative said.
Construction of the terminal in Ukraine will be carried out in any case, as the country plans to diversify its gas supplies.
The difference between the project of Azerbaijani liquefied natural gas supply to Ukraine and the project of its supply to Romania is that Romanian direction envisages construction of a LNG terminal along with gas supply from Azerbaijan to Georgia's coast. It is also envisaged to construct a gas liquefaction plant in Romania.
It is possible that the plant for liquefaction of Azerbaijani gas in Georgia will be larger than the two gas liquefaction plants in Romania and Ukraine in its capacity, SOCAR representative said.
Azerbaijani liquefied gas to Ukraine can be delivered via the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romanian Interconnector (AGRI), which involves the supply of liquefied natural gas from Azerbaijan via Georgia and the Black Sea to Romania.
The capacity of the AGRI Project is considered in three variants - 2 billion cubic meters of gas per year, 5 billion cubic meters and 8 billion cubic meters. According to preliminary data, depending on the project capacity, its cost will vary from 1.2 billion to 4.5 billion euros.
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 via tankers to a terminal at the Romanian port of Constanta.
At present, work on creating a terminal to receive liquefied gas is underway in Ukraine and is one of the country's priority national projects.