Romania actively supports the expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor and immediate actions and concrete steps are needed to achieve this, stated the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, at the official opening of the Ministerial Meeting of the Consultative Council of the Southern Gas Corridor in Baku.
“This morning I participated in the official opening of the Ministerial Meeting of the Consultative Council of the Southern Gas Corridor. The President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, and Commissioner Kadri Simson were present at this ceremony, on which occasion they conveyed important messages for the construction of the future design of the energy market, in the current geopolitical context,” the minister wrote on his Facebook page, according to Agerpres.
According to him, President Klaus Iohannis emphasized the importance of the Romanian-Azerbaijani partnership and conveyed that our country “offered the guarantee of its uninterrupted commitment to be part of the efforts aimed at developing and expanding the Corridor to new markets in Central and South-Eastern Europe.” At the same time, Iohannis emphasized that Romania remains strongly interested in accessing additional volumes of Caspian gas to cover the growing national consumption.
“Also the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev reiterated the commitment to support through concrete projects the desire to achieve energy security. It will be an important day, when together with the Azerbaijani, Georgian and Hungarian partners we will establish the concrete framework for the realization of the project of the submarine electricity transmission cable through the Black Sea. Also, in the speech I gave at the ministerial meeting, I conveyed again that Romania actively supports the expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor and immediate actions and concrete steps are needed to achieve this. Even more, we proposed to have semi-annual meetings to realize a concrete expansion plan. Any proposal for an additional gas transportation project in South-Eastern Europe and the Balkans is welcome, considering that gas availability will be one of the largest challenges of 2023,” stressed the Minister of Energy.
He specified that Romania has an operational and viable natural gas transport infrastructure, which can contribute to regional energy security, to the implementation of the development plans of the Southern Gas Corridor and to the transport of Azerbaijani gas volumes on regional markets.
“In these unprecedented times of volatility and transition, partnerships between governments and energy companies remain essential to ensure an open dialogue on an agenda that must stimulate investments, energy security, transition and innovation,” the minister also wrote on Facebook.