Azernews.Az

By Trend

Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR could have opportunities to expand its presence in Romania, Niculae Havrileț, State Secretary of the Ministry for Economy, Energy and Business Environment of Romania, told Trend.

Havrileț noted that the Romanian company Romgaz expressed last year the interest in expanding its activity in foreign markets, exploring new opportunities and identifying efficient options for expansion through a potential collaboration with SOCAR.

"On the Azerbaijani side, there was an interest in exploring and exploiting Black Sea offshore fields in partnership with Romgaz, should the Romanian company decide to get involved in these offshore projects. The topic was further discussed between the two companies on the sidelines on the last SGC Advisory Council meeting in February 2020, in Baku," noted the state secretary.

Havrileț pointed out that the very good bilateral relationship between Romania and Azerbaijan was an essential factor in the process that led to the entry of SOCAR on the Romanian market.

"Although SOCAR's activity focuses mainly on the offshore perimeters of the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea is an important energy bridge between Caspian region and the European market. Romania holds a strategic interconnection position on the Black Sea coast and has the capacity to contribute to the transit of energy from the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea towards Central and Eastern Europe," said the state secretary.

Moreover, he added that the Black Sea has significant natural gas reserves and can be an area of interest in the context of Azerbaijan's substantial and constant efforts to develop new perimeters to feed into the Southern Gas Corridor.

"That would be also in the interest to diversify the supply sources for this project beyond those in the Caspian area. It is important to note in this context that the tender for new on-shore concessions have been announced and off-shore concessions will be announced soon by the Romanian Mineral Resources Agency/NAMR. These could provide opportunities for SOCAR to expand its presence in Romania," said Havrileț.

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