BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 9. The Czech Republic coordinate becoming part of the Solidarity Ring initiative with its neighbours, a source in the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic told Trend.
“Being aware of the fact that joining the Solidarity Ring would mean for us to be at the end of the chain of states that are part of this initiative, we currently focus more on strengthening other supply routes to be able to diversify our sources of gas,” said the source.
However, as the source said, since the Czech Republic is trying to establish contacts with Azerbaijani companies through CEZ, it could take on the role of an observer in the context of supply diversification.
Solidarity Ring transmission corridor is the joint initiative of Bulgartransgaz, Transgaz, FGSZ, Eustream aiming to offer additional natural gas transmission capacities on the TSOs’ networks. It can transport up to 5-9.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
In a short-time and with incremental capacity improvements to the existing infrastructure, this truly cross-border initiative could transport up to 5-9.5 bcm/y of gas from Azerbaijan to Eastern, Central and Western Europe via Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia
The signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding for encouraging cooperation among Bulgartransgaz (Bulgaria), Transgaz (Romania), FGSZ (Hungary), Eustream (Slovakia) and the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) was held in Sofia April 25, 2023.
The Memorandum of Understanding sets out directions of cooperation between SOCAR and four distribution system operators for the supply of additional gas from Azerbaijan to Europe. The additional gas will be supplied through the upgraded transmission network systems of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.
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