BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 27. The total estimated investment cost of the Solidarity Ring initiative is around 730 million euros, Trend reports with reference to Hungarian FGSZ, which was one of the signatories of the memorandum of understanding signed April 25 in Sofia on this initiative.
“The joint initiative – also in line with the EU’s energy priorities, such as the REPower EU Plan and the EU-Azerbaijan strategic cooperation agreement – was announced and presented to the European Commission by the four TSOs in September 2022. The initiative had been reviewed and encouraged by the President of the European Commission and DG ENER. At the EU’s Central and South Eastern Europe energy connectivity (CESEC) meeting in Brussels on 19 April 2023, the involved gas TSOs introduced the initiative in detail to the EC which welcomed the cooperation of the TSOs,” the company said.
Reportedly, as a next step, TSOs agreed to follow the phases described in the Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/459 (CAM NC), starting with a non-binding market survey as a first step, conducted immediately after the annual yearly capacity auction in July 2023. After that, the TSOs will jointly prepare documentation for the alternative allocation mechanism procedure that first has to be submitted to the relevant national regulatory authorities for approval. Such open season procedure is a necessity to assess commercial interest and implement infrastructural developments.
A signing ceremony of the “Memorandum of Understanding for encouraging cooperation among Bulgartransgaz (Bulgaria), Transgaz (Romania), FGSZ (Hungary), Eustream (Slovakia) and the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR)” was held in Sofia April 25.
The Memorandum of Understanding sets out directions of cooperation between SOCAR and four distribution system operators for the supply of additional gas from Azerbaijan to Europe. The additional gas will be supplied through the upgraded transmission network systems of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia called the “Solidarity Ring”.
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