SOCAR: AGRI Project Needs More Time

Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR has said that the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector (AGRI) project needs more time.

The AGRI project envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas to the Black Sea coast through Georgia via gas pipelines. The gas will then be liquefied at a special terminal and, following this, will be delivered in tankers to a terminal at the Romanian port of Constanta.

According to Azerbaijani news agency Trend.az, Suleyman Gasimov, Vice-President for Economic Issues of SOCAR, stated the project requires huge investments.

“It is necessary to build a terminal in Georgia, and then another in Romania,” he noted.

The cost of the project is expected to be from EUR 1.2 billion to 4.5 billion, according to preliminary estimations.

The participants of the AGRI project are the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), Georgia's Oil and Gas Corporation, as well as MVM (Hungary) and Romgaz (Romania).

The parties established the SC AGRI LNG Project Company SRL in February 2011 for the implementation of the project.

The SOCAR Vice-President claims the AGRI project can only be implemented if all parties support the implementation.

At present, SOCAR is also participating in the development of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), both of which envisage supplying Europe with Azerbaijani gas.

Thea Morrison