Romania, Azerbaijan sign oil, gas accord
(BUCHAREST) - Romania and Azerbaijan signed an accord to cooperate on bringing oil and gas from the energy-rich Caucasus nation into Europe, their leaders said on Monday.
The strategic accord includes "cooperation on the Nabucco gas pipeline and the Pan-European Oil pipeline," Romanian President Traian Basescu told reporters after signing it with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.
He said that the Azerbaijani state oil company Socar "plans to expand its activity into the European Union through Romania," which joined the bloc in 2007.
The Pan-European Oil pipeline (PEOP) is an EU-backed project aiming to pipe oil from the Black Sea to Italy. Nabucco is a key pipeline project aimed at reducing Europe's dependence on Russian gas supplies.
Basescu said Socar may ship crude to the Romanian black sea port of Constanta and refine some of it in Romania, or pump oil from Constanta to the northeastern Italian port of Trieste.
The European Union said earlier this month it was in talks with Azerbaijan on providing gas to supply Nabucco, a 3,300-kilometre (2,050-mile) pipeline between Turkey and Austria scheduled to be completed by 2014.
Monday's accord between Romania and Azerbaijan also included cooperation agreements on security and culture.
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