Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary have signed a shareholders agreement to create a joint venture for the Black Sea Energy project to lay a cable to supply green energy to Europe, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said on social media following the eighth meeting of the ministers of these countries in Bucharest, Interfax reports.
"The Bucharest meeting of the Ministerial/Steering Committee on the Green Energy Corridor between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary ended with important results on the implementation of the quadrilateral agreement and the transformation of Azerbaijan into a European green energy supplier. With the signing of the shareholders agreement, we achieved the establishment of a joint venture in Bucharest," he said.
The parties agreed that leadership of JV should be based on rotation.
"We also agreed that the feasibility study includes the tasks related to the fiber optic cable line and issues on the integration of Bulgaria," Shahbazov said.
The Azerbaijani Energy Ministry said Romanian power grid operator Transelectrica, Azerbaijan's Azerenerji, Georgian State Electrosystem (GSE) and Hungary's MVM signed the shareholder agreement.
"The joint venture and the working group were asked to speed up joint procedures with the consultant to complete the project feasibility study within the set time frame, draft a plan of action for the joint venture before the next ministerial meeting and begin consultations on the business models for the project. The Green Energy Corridor joint venture will finance the feasibility study, will be responsible for monitoring its preparation and implementation, and will carry out tasks assigned by the participating countries," the ministry said.
The four countries signed an agreement in Bucharest on December 17, 2022, on strategic partnership, which includes the construction of an energy bridge from the Caucasus region to Europe. This involves laying a 1,195 km Black Sea Energy submarine cable with capacity of 1 GW. A decision was reached in June 2023 for Bulgaria to join the project.
The power grid operators of Azerbaijan, Romania, Georgia and Hungary signed a memorandum in May 2024 to set up a joint operating company for the project.
Laying the cable will take three or four years. The European Commission plans to provide 2.3 billion euros for the project.
