ROMANIA

Four EU countries are setting up a working group for the project to boost Azerbaijani gas imports, Slovakian Ministry of Economy told Trend.

Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria have asked the European Commission to allocate funds for developing infrastructure to get additional natural gas from Azerbaijan. It is about developing the existing infrastructure, construction of new interconnectors and expanding the capacity of the existing ones.

Azerbaijan will become an important green energy and hydrogen supplier to Europe in the near future, said Azerbaijan’s energy minister Parviz Shahbazov, Trend reports.

He was addressing the ministerial meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council held in Baku Feb.3.

Parviz Shahbazov said that the Green Energy Advisory Council, along with the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council, proves that along with natural gas, green energy is a priority for Azerbaijan.

Saudi Arabia expressed its desire to join the process of exporting ‘green’ electricity from Azerbaijan to Europe, Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia, co-chair of the joint commission of the two countries Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih said on December 19, Trend reports.

Al-Falih made the remark at the 7th meeting of the Joint Commission on Cooperation between Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia held in Baku.

Representatives of ICGB AD (Bulgaria), Bulgartransgaz EAD (Bulgaria), DESFA S.A. (Greece), Gastrade S.A. (Greece), FGSZ LTD (Hungary) and SNTGN TRANSGAZ S.A. (Romania) signed the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding on the implementation of the Vertical Gas Corridor. The meeting took place in Athens, Greece.

Azerbaijan, Georgia, Hungary and Romania have great prospects for their partnership in the field of "green" energy. This was written by the Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan - Parviz Shahbazov on his Twitter page.

"With my colleague, the Minister of Energy of Romania - Virgil Popescu, we discussed the priorities of cooperation in the field of energy, such as the supply of gas from Azerbaijan and the transportation of "green" energy along the Black Sea Undersea Power Transmission Line", the publication says.

The European Commission encourages all parties concerned to accelerate necessary steps to launch the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) as soon as possible, a European Commission spokesperson told Trend, as it received a letter from Romania’s former energy minister.

Romania’s former energy minister Razvan Nicolescu has sent a letter to the EU Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson, asking to take measures to speed up the launch of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria, which is aimed at transporting Azerbaijani gas.

The Middle Corridor may become more competitive compared to the Northern Corridor.

This is what Iain Rawlinson, commercial director of the company “APM Terminals Poti”, which manages the Georgian port of Poti, told “Trend”.

„Therefore, to make the Middle Corridor remain competitive when the hostilities in Ukraine end and the situation in the region normalizes, it will need its exceptional efficiency in creating transparent rail and sea transport links“, he said.

Turkmenistan’s total exports to European Union countries rose by 63 percent in January-October 2021 compared to the previous year and reached 440.3 million euros, Eurostat told Trend.

Turkmenistan exported to Italy goods worth 59.2 million euros during the reporting period, compared to 74.6 million euros in January-October 2020.

Since the start of the year, wholesale gas prices in Europe have risen by 250 percent. The record-high prices in Europe are driven by increased demand (due to the wider economic recovery and weather-related factors), competition with Asia for LNG, and a limited supply response from Gazprom, Europe’s largest supplier, providing about a third of Europe’s gas. The current gas supply crunch in Europe once again showed the importance of diversification of gas supply routes and sources.

We hope that a new agreement between the EU and Azerbaijan will be signed before the end of this year, Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said, Trend reports.

The minister made the statement at a press conference in Tbilisi.

“While in Azerbaijan, we noted our confidence that this country is key to the stability and prosperity of the South Caucasus”, he said.