Georgia’s natural gas supplies
By M. Alkhazashvili
(Translated by Diana Dundua)
(Translated by Diana Dundua)
Monday, November 26
Although news that natural gas deliveries from Azerbaijan were to be cut back caused alarm amongst the public, government officials here say Georgia’s gas supplies will not be affected.
Georgia has officially refused to purchase natural gas from Russia. Analysts say the country makes up the shortfall from Iran, though this is not confirmed.
Azerbaijan plans to up natural gas production to eight billion cubic meters in 2008, the Russian news agency Regnum reports.
Despite the increase in natural gas production and Azerbaijan’s export plans, Georgia was unable to reach an agreement whereby Azerbaijan became its main gas supplier.
The first deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, Yaqub Eyyubov, made the announcement that the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic had halted natural gas exports to Georgia a few days ago.
Eyyubov said Azerbaijan had received less natural gas than expected from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and Shah-Deniz gas fields.
Regnum quoted Eyyubov as saying that Georgia currently received natural gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah-Deniz gas field, which was processed by an international consortium.
He said that in 2008, Azerbaijan only planned natural gas exports from Shah-Deniz, so the amount of gas for export depended on supplies from this field alone.
From January to October, 2007, Azerbaijan supplied 1.2 million cubic meters of natural gas a day to Georgia. The cost for 1 000 cubic meters used to be USD 120.
From next year, Georgia will get one million cubic meters of natural gas a day from Shah-Deniz.
Georgia’s Energy Minister, Aleksandre Khetaguri, says the country will not face any problems regarding gas supplies, but analysts claim that current supply is less than Georgia’s needs.
The newspaper Rezonansi writes that besides the one million cubic meters of natural gas received from Shah-Deniz, Georgia takes ten percent of the natural gas sent from Russia to Armenia as a tariff (approximately one million cubic meters a day), but the country consumes at least three million cubic meters a day.
So, where does Georgia get the additional one million cubic meters from?
In June 2007, Georgia stopped buying natural gas from Russia.
Experts believe that, besides Azerbaijani natural gas, Georgia gets gas from Iran via Azerbaijan, though the government does not want to publicize this, Rezonansi reports.
Georgia has officially refused to purchase natural gas from Russia. Analysts say the country makes up the shortfall from Iran, though this is not confirmed.
Azerbaijan plans to up natural gas production to eight billion cubic meters in 2008, the Russian news agency Regnum reports.
Despite the increase in natural gas production and Azerbaijan’s export plans, Georgia was unable to reach an agreement whereby Azerbaijan became its main gas supplier.
The first deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, Yaqub Eyyubov, made the announcement that the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic had halted natural gas exports to Georgia a few days ago.
Eyyubov said Azerbaijan had received less natural gas than expected from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and Shah-Deniz gas fields.
Regnum quoted Eyyubov as saying that Georgia currently received natural gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah-Deniz gas field, which was processed by an international consortium.
He said that in 2008, Azerbaijan only planned natural gas exports from Shah-Deniz, so the amount of gas for export depended on supplies from this field alone.
From January to October, 2007, Azerbaijan supplied 1.2 million cubic meters of natural gas a day to Georgia. The cost for 1 000 cubic meters used to be USD 120.
From next year, Georgia will get one million cubic meters of natural gas a day from Shah-Deniz.
Georgia’s Energy Minister, Aleksandre Khetaguri, says the country will not face any problems regarding gas supplies, but analysts claim that current supply is less than Georgia’s needs.
The newspaper Rezonansi writes that besides the one million cubic meters of natural gas received from Shah-Deniz, Georgia takes ten percent of the natural gas sent from Russia to Armenia as a tariff (approximately one million cubic meters a day), but the country consumes at least three million cubic meters a day.
So, where does Georgia get the additional one million cubic meters from?
In June 2007, Georgia stopped buying natural gas from Russia.
Experts believe that, besides Azerbaijani natural gas, Georgia gets gas from Iran via Azerbaijan, though the government does not want to publicize this, Rezonansi reports.