Baku, April 26, AZERTAC

A delegation led by SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev has attended the opening ceremony of the gas terminal and power plant built by ElectroGas Malta, partially owned by SOCAR Trading, in the city of Marsaxlokk, Malta.

The event, attended by Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and other officials, informed that by supplying natural gas in the form of LNG to the new power plant in Malta and the state-owned energy company Enemalta, SOCAR had created favorable conditions in the country for a complete switch from fuel oil as a source of electricity generation. In the first part of the event, accompanied by Marsaxlokk residents, Delimara-1 power station operating on fuel oil was decommissioned. Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat spoke about the work of ElectroGas Malta with support of its shareholders SOCAR Trading, Siemens PV, and GEM Holding, and stated that implemented measures allowed to reduce price of electricity by 25% and emissions into the atmosphere by 90%. SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev conveyed his congratulations on the start of a new gas era in Malta, expressed the gratitude to the government of Malta for creating favorable conditions for implementation of such a large-scale project. He also mentioned the perspective plans of SOCAR for work in Malta. In the framework of the event, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev held a number of meetings with Maltese officials.

It is to note, in 2013, as part of the ElectroGas Malta consortium, SOCAR Trading won a tender issued by the Maltese Government for gasification of the island for electricity generation. In partnership with Siemens and the local investment company GEM, SOCAR Trading coordinated a project worth over 500 mln EUR to build a new 210 MW power plant and LNG regasification terminal on the island. The construction work was started in December 2014 and, initial batch of LNG was received in January 2017. SOCAR Trading is the exclusive LNG supplier to the project. ElectroGas Malta is considered to supply electricity and natural gas to the state-owned energy company Enemalta for 18 years.