A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company (SOCAR) and Romania’s state-owned company Transgaz, SOCAR anounced on Tuesday.

The document was signed during a meeting of SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev with Ramona Mănescu, a member of the European Parliament, the chairman of the Transgaz Board of Administration, Ion Sterian, and the head of European Funds Accessing and International Relations Division of Transgaz, Ciprian Alic, in Baku.

The sides emphasized that the signing of the memorandum will strengthen the cooperation between SOCAR and Transgaz on gas transportation, as well as opportunities of using Romania’s gas transit and distribution capacity in gas supply from Azerbaijan and Caspian region, cooperation on gas supply and trading in Romanian market, including potential terminals for LNG intake within the framework of AGRI.

In late May, at the Energy Strategy Summit organized by energynomics.ro, Ciprian Alic was referring to new resources soon to be available for Europe, from Azerbaijan: “Since 2018, the Shah Deniz 2 project will also come with a surplus of about 16 billion cubic meters, in addition to the present 10 billion. This means more than doubling the supply capacity for a southern corridor to Europe.”