Page 11 - GLNG Week 42 2022

GLNG EUROPE GLNG

Romgaz, Socar sign new MoU

for old Black Sea LNG project

ROMANIA ROMANIA’S state-controlled gas company A pretty detailed summary of AGRI pro-
Romgaz announced on October 19 that it ject and its of its first stages including the fea-
had concluded in Bucharest a memorandum sibility study commissioned to Penspen Ltd. of
of understanding (MoU) with its Azeri peer the UK under a contract endorsed by Romgaz
SOCAR” to set grounds of new cooperation shareholders on June 8, 2012, is available in the
between the two companies”. documents of a Romgaz shareholder meeting in
The project is envisaged to consist of an LNG December 2014 – when the shareholders were
liquefaction plant, a regasification plant, as well asked for more money to be invested in the pro-
as all other installations and facilities needed in ject company.
order to transport natural gas from the Caspian The project company, still active, spent €1mn
region into Romania, the statement reads. mostly during 2013-2015 when the feasibil-
“It is a new project, both for us and for Azer- ity study was carried out. And it still had two
baijan,” stated Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, employees as of 2021.
who attended the ceremony. Penspen’s results were presented in Decem-
The project is anything but new, though. Only ber 2014 and approved by the project company
the context is, after Russia invaded Ukraine. in January 2015. The project’s cost is estimated
What makes it different from the AGRI at €1.2bn-4.5bn depending on the terminals’
(Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnec- capacity, which can vary between 2 and 8 billion
tor) sketched in 2010 by the governments of the cubic meters of gas per year. It would take nine
three countries (Georgia as a transit country) is years to complete the project, the consultant also
the replacement of Hungary with Moldova as the estimated.
primary beneficiary of re-exports from Roma- On 8 March 2019, Georgian Oil and Gas, one
nia. Hungary still holds a 25% stake in the AGRI of AGRI’s shareholders, released an update on
project company. the project, saying “currently, the shareholders
“We are also looking for solutions to bring gas of AGRI LNG Project Company are discussing
from the Caspian area, through the trans-Ana- the issues related to further development and
tolian pipeline (TAP) through Turkey-Bulgar- implementation of AGRI project, supposedly
ia-Romania, and from Romania to the other after 2024-2026 years when the realisation of
beneficiary countries, one of them being the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz Phase 2 and other fields
Republic of Moldova. It is a commitment of development projects are completed”. Turkmen-
us and of Azerbaijan, to be able to support the istan is also interested in the AGRI project.
Republic of Moldova with the necessary amount On 10 March 2021, Azerbaijan’s energy min-
of gas,” said Ciucă on October 19. ister stated that the project was frozen.
On 13 April 2010, the ministers of econ- Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24,
omy of Azerbaijan (Natig Aliyev), Romania 2022, and everything has changed. Under an
(Adriean Videanu) and Georgia (Alexander MoU signed by the European Union and Azer-
Khetaguri) signed a memorandum of under- baijan in July 2022, the latter would double its
standing on cooperation in the field of LNG and gas exports to Europe to 20bn cubic metes within
its transportation, which laid the framework for several years. Substituting Europe’s dependence
the implementation of the AGRI Project and on Russian gas and reinforcing Ilham Aliev’s dic-
establishment of a project company AGRI LNG tatorship has not received unanimous support
headquartered in Bucharest. Hungary joined the throughout Europe, though. ™
AGRI Project in February 2011.

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