The AGRI project (Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania-Hungary Interconnector) has the potential of being developed in the Eastern dimension too by also attracting other suppliers such as Turkmenistan, Romanian President Traian Basescu said here on Tuesday.
‘AGRI gathers in itself the key role of the Republic of Azerbaijan, as a major hydrocarbon producer, the geo-strategic importance of Georgia and Romania as a linking bridge over the Black Sea and Hungary’s added value for the development of the Western dimension of the project.
At the same time, the AGRI project has the potential of being developed in the Eastern dimension too by also attracting other suppliers such as Turkmenistan’, said Basescu, who attended the AGRI Summit in the Azeri capital of Baku.
He stressed that the pillars on which the Romanian energy strategy relies include such elements as diversifying the sources and supply routes, ensuring sustainable development by the improved energy efficiency and promoting renewable energy, namely promoting competitiveness by the liberalization of the energy market.
The president said Romania pledges to make the Project Company, to be headquartered in Bucharest, operational in the shortest possible time so as to go ahead with the feasibility study.
‘Together with (Hungary’s) Premier Viktor Orban we’ll make the necessary moves for the feasibility study to be co-financed by the European Union as part of the TEN E-2001 Programme. At present, a survey on the LNG terminal in Constanta (the Black Sea port of Romania – editor’s note) is being finalised, with its conclusions to be the starting point for the survey targeting the AGRI project’, he added.
The Romanian leader argued that the human resources training can represent an important part of the future cooperation of the states involved in the AGRI project, so that the management of the energy infrastructure projects should be as efficient as possible.
‘In this respect I wish to underscore Romania’s offer for training in this field by its University of Oil and Gas based in Ploiesti. I also wish to recall the success scored by similar projects in which specialists from Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan took part’, Basescu said.
The Presidents of Romania Traian Basescu, of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili and Hungary’s Premier Viktor Orban held official talks at the AGRI Summit in Baku on Tuesday.
The Romanian delegation also includes Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi, Democratic Liberal first vice president and former Economy Minister Adriean Videanu and incumbent Economy Minister Ion Ariton.
The AGRI project seeks to capitalise on Azerbaijan’s natural resources as well as on the strategic location of Georgia, Romania and Hungary so as to offer an alternative to Europe’s energy market.
Romania, Azerbaijan and Georgia signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Bucharest on April 13 relating to the achievement of the AGRI project by which Caspian gas should be carried to Europe from Azerbaijan through Georgia and Romania, with the investment being put at between two and four billion euros. On Sept. 1, Basescu announced that Hungarian Premier Orban had accepted his proposal that Hungary should also be a co-founder of the AGRI energy project.
Three alternatives for the implementation of the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector are currently being considered. Azeri Minister of Energy and Industry Natik Aliev, according to abc.az Web site, said in Baku on Monday that the first alternative targets the supply of one billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, the second – five billion cubic metres and the third – eight billion cubic metres. The volume of the capital investments changes depending on such quantity from 1.2 billion euros to 4.5 billion euros.
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