Georgia To Stop Buying Russian Gas: Minister
Georgia will refuse to purchase natural gas from Russian giant Gazprom, the country's energy minister Kakha Kaladze has said, according to the Business Georgia news site. By the end of this year, no new deals will be concluded to acquire Russian gas, he said.
“In April, Georgia will completely switch to supplying the population and enterprises with gas from Azerbaijan. The suppliers ... to Georgia are the state oil company of Azerbaijan (Socar) and the consortium which is developing the Shah Deniz gas condensate field," said Kaladze, a former football player for AC Milan who became Georgia's energy minister in 2012.
Georgia's energy minister Kakha Kaladze (right) with former US ambassador Richard B Norland in 2012 (Photo credit: US embassy in Georgia)
According to the energy ministry, Georgia in 2017 plans to import 2.347bn m3 from Azerbaijan . “Thus, the share of Russian gas in the total volume of imports will not be more than 4%,” the report said.
As deputy energy minister Mariam Valishvili said earlier, Georgia imported 100mn m3 of commercial gas from Russia in the first two months of 2017, most of which (70mn m3) during February. Georgia paid Gazprom $185 per thousand m3 ($5.14/mn Btu). That price is consistent with current Western European hub prices, although their prices were higher this winter.
Azerbaijan desk