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SOCAR: AGRI interconnector is not dead
The project of the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania (AGRI) interconnector for the transport of liquefied gas from Azerbaijan to Romania is not dead, but since it is very costly, it needs more time to be implemented, said Suleyman Gasimov, vice-president on economic issues of Azerbaijan's state-owned oil and natural gas corporation SOCAR, attending on last Friday in Bucharest the opening of a new gas station.
It's been a long time since the AGRI idea was initiated. Right from the beginning the project required a large investment. The construction of the Georgia terminal and then of the terminal in Romania require huge investments, Gasimov replied when asked about the reason why the AGRI project is at a standstill.
He mentioned that SOCAR is currently involved in other projects through which the Azeri gas will reach Europe, such as the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline project (TANAP).
There are pipelines in place through which Azerbaijan exports gas on the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum route and we are currently involved in the TANAP project; SOCAR isn't alone in this, we have foreign partners. There has been mulling on either Nabucco or TAP, and in the end the TAP project was selected and we carry on with it, said the SOCAR vice-president.
According to him, SOCAR considers that there are chances for the AGRI project to be carried out as long as it has the support of all the countries involved.
AGRI remains a project under debate, under analysis. If we've been discussing it to this day, it means that the project is not dead, it further offers substance for talk. It takes time, because Azerbaijan is rich in oil and gas deposits, we have powerful partners there, large global oil companies, we are all looking at the matter together and we all must have the same interest in new projects like AGRI. But let's see how things evolve in time, Gasimov added.
The purpose of the AGRI project is carrying Caspian natural gas via Azerbaijan and Georgia, and across the Black Sea by means of gas tank ships, involving the construction of two liquefying terminals (on the Georgian Black Sea coast) and a re-gasification terminal respectively (on the Romanian Black Sea coast). The gas is mainly aimed to provide the Romanian and Hungarian consumption, with the remainder to be directed to other potential markets across Europe. The project was initiated in 2010 by a memorandum signed in Bucharest by Romania, Azerbaijan and Georgia, to which Hungary later added.