Energy ministers in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Romania signed Wednesday the joint declaration of the inter-ministerial reunion regarding AGRI project.
AGRI is aimed at transporting natural gas from Azerbaijan, via Georgia, to Romania and to other potential EU markets.
The project involves the construction of a gas liquefying terminal on the Georgian Black Sea coast and the transport of the gas by sea to Romania, where a regasification terminal will be constructed.
The feasibility study takes into account two different capacity scenarios, namely 5 and 8 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. The investment is estimated at EUR1.2 billion-EUR4.5 billion, depending on the transport capacity.
Gerea added that he had talks with Bulgarian and Serbian energy ministers in the last month, who also showed interest in the project.
According to Gerea, the project could cost Romania nearly EUR1 billion. The project will be financed from the sources of participating companies, namely Romgaz for Romania.
The project was initiated in 2010 by a memorandum signed in Bucharest by Romania, Azerbaijan and Georgia, while Hungary joined later.
The shareholders of AGRI LNG Project Company are Romanian natural gas producer Romgaz Medias (SNG. RO), Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation – GOGC (Georgia), State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and Magyar Villamos Művek (Hungary).