Azerbaijan waiting for investment proposals on AGRI project

Azerbaijan is ready to participate in the implementation of AGRI (Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romanian Interconnector) project if there are private investors, the country’s Energy Minister Natig Aliyev told reporters Nov.27. “It is a very interesting project,” he said. “Azerbaijan has necessary resources which it could export to Romania. However, a number of issues remain unresolved.” The minister said that for the present, it is not clear who will invest in AGRI project, as well as in constructing a terminal in Georgia. Romania won’t be able to finance this project by itself, said the minister adding that therefore, the participation of a driving force represented by private investors or financial institutions is necessary. “For our part, we are ready to participate in the implementation of the project,” said Aliyev. AGRI project envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas to the Black Sea coast of Georgia via gas pipelines. Azerbaijani gas delivered to Georgia’s Black Sea coast will be liquefied at a special terminal and following this, it will be delivered in tankers to a terminal at the Romanian port of Constanta. Further, it will be brought to the gaseous state and sent via the country’s gas infrastructure for meeting the demands of Romania and other European countries. The cost of the project will vary from 1.2 billion euros to 4.5 billion euros, according to the preliminary estimations. The project’s cost will depend on the capacity of terminals that can be equal to 2-8 billion cubic meters of gas per year. 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, trend.az informs.