Georgia received ‘interesting proposal’

Georgia’s Minister of Energy, Kakha Kaladze has stated Georgia has received ‘an interesting proposal’ from Russia’s energy giant Gazprom Company at January 10 meeting.

The Minister stressed the Government of Georgia planned to discuss the proposal.

“Several meetings have been held with Gazprom but without any result as our positions were very different,” Kaladze said.

“The conversation mainly referred to the issue of financial reimbursement,” the Minister added.

Experts believe that Georgia should not receive the price of the gas transit to Armenia as financial reimbursement; for his part, Kaladze says this point of view is misguided.

In March last year, Georgia reached a verbal agreement with Gazprom to continue cooperating as it did in the past, meaning Georgia would receive 10% of natural gas that transits through the country to Armenia instead of monetary compensation.

To date, Georgia has received 200 million m3 of natural gas per year from Russia in return for transit, Kaladze stated then.

The Minister also claimed in January 2016, the country faced a gas deficit especially in winters and the deficit could be filled via Gazprom.

The statement caused a large-scaled stir in Georgia among the opposition and the civil sector, who opposed additional gas transit from Russia when the country occupies 20% of Georgia’s land.

Later, after meeting with Azerbaijan’s SOCAR leadership, Kaladze stressed that Georgia’s natural gas supply deficit challenge was solved until 2030 as during the next 14 years Georgia would receive an additional 500 million cubic metres (m3) of natural gas from Azerbaijan’s national oil company, SOCAR, raising the amount it receives from 800 million to 1.3 billion m3 per year.

Azerbaijan is the main gas supplier of Georgia, with a share of 77.9% of the total volume of gas imports of the country.

About 686 million cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas came as part of the agreement in the frames of the BP-operated South Caucasus Pipeline, which transports gas from the Shah Deniz offshore field in the Caspian Sea to Turkey via Georgia. A total of 1.21 billion cubic meters were imported as part of a separate deal with Azerbaijan.

Georgia received 267.7 million cubic meters of gas from Russia in 2014, of which 206.1 million was dubbed a transit fee. As a fee, Georgia receives 10% of Russia’s gas transited to Armenia through the North-South Pipeline. Georgia also imported 61.6 million cubic meters of Russian gas in 2014.

It is interesting now what type of “interesting proposal” Georgia received from Gazprom, a company that is generally used for political purposes by Russia.

Georgia has already seen that depending on Russia’s energy products is very dangerous, as in case of any tension Russia will use its resources against its opponent.

Georgia must be very cautious when increasing its dependence on Russia, as it remains an occupant country which violates Georgian interests on a daily basis.