EU stresses need for closer energy cooperation with Georgia

EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said his talks with Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili focused on the development of transport routes through Georgia for oil and gas shipped westward from the Caspian Sea region, notably through the port of Baku, capital of neighboring Azerbaijan.

"We are very keen to get supply of resources from the Caspian Sea region towards the European Union," Piebalgs told reporters.

"If there will be more hydrocarbons passing via Baku then definitely we will need more increased capacities in Georgia," he added. "I got full assurances from the minister that it will be regarded in a positive spirit."

The EU sees the emerging energy potential of Azerbaijan and former Soviet republics in Central Asia as an alternative to Russia, which currently accounts for 28 percent of EU oil imports and around 30 percent of its gas.

"It's important to diversity," Piebalgs explained. "Having one monopoly supplier at the end of the day leaves the consumer exposed."

To avoid transporting Central Asian and Azeri resources through Russia, the EU is studying the possibility of opening new routes across the Caspian sea and then overland through Georgia and Turkey to ports on the Mediterranean or Black Sea.

Georgia is keen to play a role as part of its drive to build closer ties with the West that would counter an uneasy relationship with its giant northern neighbor Russia.

Bezhuashvili said George shared the "common vision" of boosting Europe's energy security.

"We very much appreciate efforts Georgia is doing," Piebalgs said. "It definitely means more transit supply passing via Georgia, it means definitely strains also for Georgia, but Georgia is ready to provide the necessary supply corridors."

Piebalgs said an oil pipeline from Baku through Georgia and on to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan which opened last year was the "first breakthrough" in the EU's efforts to secure Caspian region supplies. A similar pipeline for gas is now in the works, and Piebalgs said the EU was also looking at the prospect of transporting fuel by rail.

Construction is expected to start in June on a US$600 million (?440 million) rail line linking the eastern Turkish city of Kars with Baku through the Georgian capital Tbilisi. The Associated Press

/The International Herald Tribune/