SOCAR acquires new gas pipelines in Georgia

By Azernews

By Leman Mammadova

Providing high-quality products to the Georgian market, SOCAR is expanding its activities in the country to strengthen its position.

The company is implementing its operations in Georgia through SOCAR Georgia Petroleum, SOCAR Gas Export-Import, SOCAR Georgia Gas, SOCAR Georgia Gas Distribution, Black Sea Terminal and other subsidiaries.

SOCAR Georgia Gas has purchased 94 new gas pipelines.

According to the information provided by SOCAR Georgia, the gas pipelines were sold to the company for $8.3 million by the decision of the Georgian government.

In accordance with the deal, SOCAR Georgia Gas will fully pay for the cost of the purchased property in 18 years.

The gas pipeline network covers the whole Georgia, most of them are located in the Zestafoni, Kaspi and Lanchkhuti regions.

Presently, SOCAR is the major supplier of natural gas, oil and oil products to Georgia. SOCAR’s subsidiaries are engaged in expansion and modernization of the country’s gas distribution systems and development of filling stations under SOCAR’s brand. The company also owns an oil terminal in Georgia’s Kulevi Black Sea Port, which supplies Azerbaijani oil and oil products to the world markets.

SOCAR Georgia Gas was established in 2007 to provide the import and sale of natural gas to the Georgian market, as well as to construct and rehabilitate gas pipelines. Currently, 19 functional services are active within SOCAR Georgia Gas. In addition, the company has founded 6 distribution enterprises in a number of regions of Georgia.

During the entire period of SOCAR Georgia Gas, total investments amounted to $77 million (construction of gas pipelines, rehabilitation and design works). Additionally, investments worth $30 million are envisaged within the 3-year program.

SOCAR Georgia Gas supplied 250,000 customers with gas and invested around $290 million in gas in 2008-2017. In addition, the company imported 1.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the Georgian market during this period.

SOCAR was the first in Georgia to install stations for charging electric cars. Currently, such charging points are available in six regions of the country.

Currently, 113 gas stations operate under the SOCAR brand in Georgia. The company's share in the retail market is about 16 percent. In 2018, the company sold more than 147 million liters of products at gas stations. SOCAR plans to sell over 160 million liters of oil products at the company's gas stations in Georgia in 2019.

The revenues of SOCAR from operations in Georgia amounted to 1.1 billion manats (5.2 percent down) in 2018.