Azerbaijan state energy company SOCAR plans to announce a tender to find a company to conduct a feasibility study on Albania’s gas infrastructure plan as part of European efforts to reduce dependence on gas from Russia.
“SOCAR will announce this tender in the next three months,” Murad Heydarov, adviser to SOCAR’s president, told Reuters.
“We should draft the feasibility study before the end of 2015, and if this project is considered effective, we will start Albania’s gasification project in March next year.”
Heydarov estimated the project’s cost at “several hundred million dollars”.
The general plan of feasibility study of Albania’s gasification was discussed in Tirana on February 18, 2015 under SOCAR’s chairmanship. SOCAR reported that the discussion has been held within the framework of the memorandum signed between Azerbaijan and Albania on December 19, 2014. The working group on the general plan of the feasibility study of Albania’s gasification has been created after discussion. The next session on this problem will take place in April 2015.
