LNG exports via AGRI could reach 8 bln m3 per year - Azerbaijani energy ministry
BAKU. Sept 27 (Interfax) - Shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) via the AGRI (Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector) project from the Caspian region to Europe by sea bypassing Russia, which might be an alternative to the Nabucco pipeline, could reach 8 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year.
"In the near future, under the AGRI project, work on a feasibility study will be completed. In the first stage, exports via AGRI will amount to 2 billion cubic meters of gas, in the second and third stages - 5-8 billion cubic meters," Deputy Azerbaijani Industry and Energy Minister Natig Abbasov said Thursday at the international conference Building Bridges.
"With Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania, and Hungary involved in the project, other countries are showing interest, including Ukraine and Bulgaria," Abbasov said.
A number of countries are coming out with proposals for building terminals for the receipt of this gas, he said.
"Now on the agenda is implementing the project of building the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) and providing deliveries of gas from the Shah Deniz deposit," Abbasov said. Azerbaijan has already negotiated with BP over increasing the throughput capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum pipeline to 35 bcm per year. Azerbaijan is also prepared to take on the role of transit country and "takes a positive view of the project for transporting Turkmen gas through its territory to Europe, ready to create all the conditions necessary for this," he said.
The AGRI (Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector) project aims to supply Caspian gas bypassing Russia. A political declaration to build the pipeline in September 2012 was signed by the presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Romania and the Hungarian prime minister. The project is designed to provide an alternative route to Russia's to deliver Azeri gas to Europe. It is expected that the 'blue fuel' will be transported from Azerbaijan on the Georgian Black Sea coast. There, gas will be liquefied and delivered by sea tankers to the Romanian port of Constanta. Then the fuel will be 'brought back' into its gaseous state and sent from Romania to Hungary and onward to Western Europe.
Some experts think that the transit of liquefied Caspian gas by sea would cost far less than building the Nabucco pipeline.