Hamza Karimov, SOCAR Romania President: We have no interest in Arpechim, Oltchim or Petrom / AGRI is a project that developed rapidly 

After entering the Romanian market through a surprising acquisition of Romtranspetrol, a distribution company, the Azeri state company SOCAR analyses the market as it awaits new opportunities, SOCAR Romania chief Hamza Karimov said in an interview for HotNews.ro. Karimov said that SOCAR has no interest in Oltchim, Arpechim or Petrom.

Romania is a country close to Azerbaijan, with political relationships at the highest level due to the friendship between the two Presidents and thus the company analyses the market, Karimov said. He said that the AGRI project is complementary to Nabucco and refused to express the thought that there is a competition between Nabucco or AGRI.

Romania is related now to Azerbaijan through two major energy projects: Nabucco and AGRI. The both have the purpose to decrease Romania’s dependence on Russian natural gas imports. Nabucco, a project sustained by the EU is considered the new link between Asia and Europe. AGRI aims at transporting gas from Azerbaijan to Europe through Georgia and Romania.