Băsescu: Socar wants to extend its European operations in Romania

National Azeri Company Socar is looking to expand its EU operations and is eyeing Romania to do so, by increasing the crude storage capacity of the Port of Constanţa.

President Traian Băsescu emphasized, after a discussion with his Azeri peer Ilham Aliyev: "According to Socar, this project could come to fruition in the form of increasing the crude oil storage capacity of the port of Constanţa, which would allow Socar to use its crude resources in two ways: by refining part of the crude passing through the port of Constanţa in Romanian refineries and creating a distribution network for the European Union, and by pumping large amounts of crude to Trieste through the port of Constanţa".

Head of state mentioned that an argument in favor of this alternative is the terminal in Supsa, Georgia, which can receive high capacity ships that carry crude through the Caspian area, including crude produced in Azerbaijan, which is exported through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles strait to Europe.

In turn, the Azeri president said that, in his experience, all projects initiated, started and proposed by Azerbaijan can be beneficial for future projects. "If the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline had not been built, most likely the Baku-Erzurum pipeline would not have been built either. If the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline had not been built, there would have been no way to bring natural gas produced in Azerbaijan to the European Union, because the construction of the Nabucco pipeline is the result of the development of the regional oil and gas infrastructure of Azerbaijan", Aliyev explained.

Azeri oil company Socar is interested in collaborating with Romanian oil and gas companies in building gas stores in Romania, storing oil with Oil Terminal and participating in a joint-venture with Romanian petrochemical companies.