Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash
The transmission system operators of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and SOCAR signed an important Memorandum of Understanding in Sofia today, 25th April.
The signing ceremony of the “Memorandum of Understanding for encouraging cooperation among Bulgartransgaz (Bulgaria), Transgaz (Romania), FGSZ (Hungary), Eustream (Slovakia) and the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR)” was held in Sofia.
It was attended by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rumen Radev.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan Parviz Shahbazov, Minister of Energy of Bulgaria Rossen Hristov, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Energy of Romania Virgil-Daniel Popescu and Minister of Economy of Slovakia Karel Hirman.
Addressing the ceremony, the President of Azerbaijan hailed this as a very important and timely step in the further diversification of energy resources and also energy security, and also a very timely step.
“The MoU signed today, when implemented, will allow Azerbaijan to export more gas to many more European countries.”
He stressed that Azerbaijan is a reliable partner of Europe, not only in the area of energy, but also in many other areas.
“In 2021, we delivered 8 billion cubic meters to Europe. And this year, our target is 12. So, that will be almost half of our total export, which we plan for this year at the level of 24.5 billion cubic meters. And of course, our production and export will grow, because we will increase production from existing gas fields and also in the coming years we expect production of natural gas with new fields. Today, Azerbaijani gas is exported to Georgia, Türkiye, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, and starting from this year Romania. By the end of this year, if all necessary interconnectors are in place, we plan to start gas supplies to Hungary and Slovakia.”
“We are in the process of negotiations with Albania to build a local gas distribution system, because the Southern Gas Corridor crosses Albania’s territory. As a member of the “Solidarity Ring”, I’m sure, Slovakia will soon become our partner in energy as well. We will increase the geography of our gas supplies from 6 to at least 10 countries. I say at least, because I think this is not the end of the story. We plan to expand furthermore our presence on the European gas market.”
Also addressing the meeting, the President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev said that today’s success was largely due to the reliable and long-term strategic cooperation between Bulgaria and Azerbaijan. This cooperation has developed very successfully in the last year and is now at a new level. Bulgaria has been reliably supplied by Azerbaijan for more than a year, according to the agreement signed more than 10 years ago.
“It is clear that the signing of the Memorandum today is a very strong signal for new cooperation between us,” said Radev. “This will expand the volume of gas supply networks of our countries, as well as the connectivity between us.”
The Memorandum of Understanding sets out directions of cooperation between SOCAR and four distribution system operators for the supply of additional gas from Azerbaijan to Europe. The additional gas will be supplied through the upgraded transmission network systems of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia called the “Solidarity Ring”.
