Azeri LNG Hub in Malta
Malta and Azerbaijan have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the development of a gas hub which would cater for local and international markets, reports the Times of Malta.
The MOU targets strategic collaboration in the oil and gas sector as part of the government’s vision to transform energy and petroleum sectors into key value added economic activities. To this end, both sides identified a number of key areas.
The European Union is also looking southwards to develop a “southern gas corridor” for natural gas from Azerbaijan to fuel the European mainland.
A key policy that also ties in with the Maltese government’s prospective energy shift to gas, supplied by Azeri state corporation SOCAR, will be the creation of the southern corridor running from the Caspian region and into Italy.
The more interesting keyword is the “Mediterranean gas hub” which the EU would like to develop in the south of Europe together with North African and Eastern Mediterranean partners.
Malta will be supplied with natural gas on an 18-year charter of a floating storage unit from SOCAR Trading, which has the exclusive right to supply LNG to a new 200MW plant at Delimara.
Prime Minister of Malta Joseph Muscat will be visiting Azerbaijan late next month. Muscat's delegation comprised chief of staff Keith Schembri, spokesperson Kurt Farrugia and energy minister Konrad Mizzi, ostensibly to discuss long-term gas supplies for the LNG power plant that ElectroGas will construct at Delimara.