Georgia reveals fate of Batumi oil terminal

The seizure will be lifted from the assets of the Batumi oil terminal only after a corresponding court decision, the Public Relations Department of Georgia’s Economy and Sustainable Development Ministry told Trend.

The department said that this issue’s settlement is within the competence of the court.

According to the ministry, at the same time, the seizure of assets doesn’t prevent the daily work of the terminal in oil transhipment, but only limits the disposal of the property, which is located on its territory.

The ministry said the seizure of assets of the terminal, which belongs to the Kazakh company KazTransOil, is due to a legal dispute between the private companies.

The order on the seizure was issued by the Tbilisi City Court as means to meet the requirements of the statement of claim, the department said.

“Since this issue belongs to the category of a legal dispute between private companies, the Georgian and Kazakh sides don’t see it in the political context,” the ministry said.

Therefore, negotiations on lifting assets seizure of the Batumi Oil Terminal between Kazakhstan and Georgia are not conducted, but the Kazakh side was provided with information about the current state of affairs, the department said.

KazTransOil owns 100 percent of shares of the Batumi Terminals Limited company through which it owns and controls the productive assets in Georgia – Batumi Oil terminal LLC and Batumi Sea Port LLC.

Kazakh oil and petroleum products are transported to the Batumi Oil Terminal via tankers from Aktau to Baku and then via the railway from Baku to Batumi.

Batumi sea port is located in the south-eastern part of the Black Sea. The port covers an area of 22.2 hectares. The total area of the open storage territory is 15,656 square meters. (Trend.az)