Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Nov.24 / Trend, H. Hasanov /
Turkmenistan and Romania discussed prospects of cooperation in the energy sphere, an official Turkmen source said on Thursday.
Bucharest recently hosted a regular meeting of the Turkmen-Romanian commission on cooperation in the energy sphere.
According to the Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammadov's order, Ashgabat delegation was headed by the Turkmenneft State Concern chairman Annaguly Deryayev.
Ashgabat and Bucharest share single position on international energy security by diversifying energy supplies to sale markets.
Romania is directly interested in gaining direct access to the Turkmen gas. Romanian Transgaz is a party of "Nabucco" gas pipeline project, along with the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE.
The "Nabucco" project is aimed at getting access to different natural fuel sources, including to energy resources of the Caspian region, primarily of Azerbaijan and Central Asian states. Turkmenistan can join it during the construction of a 300-kilometer gas pipeline on the Caspian seabed, related with Azerbaijan's infrastructure.
In May 2011, Turkmenistan at a high level meeting, voiced interest in the gas pipeline project Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector (AGRI), providing for the delivery of liquefied gas through the Caspian Sea Black Sea coast of Georgia to Romania.
The Baku Declaration on the AGRI project was signed on Sept. 14, 2010. Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary are all interested in its implementation. The project cost will depend on the design capacity and can 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 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 .