Today.Az » Business » Georgia to increase import of Azerbaijani gas
13 March 2019 [12:00] - Today.Az


By Azernews


By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade

The two most important strategic segments of the gas market of Georgia - the population and the production of electricity, are fully provided and will be provided by Azerbaijani gas, Georgian Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Natia Tournava stated at a briefing on March 12, Trend reports with reference to Sputnik Georgia.

"Azerbaijan remains the main supplier and strategic partner of Georgia, and the share of Azerbaijani gas will increase in the Georgian market in the coming years," Tournava said.

Tournava also added that after the full implementation of the second phase of the Shah-Deniz field, Georgia as a transit country for Azerbaijani gas will receive its own gas resources.

"These resources will be used for gas supply of socially unprotected segments of the population and the power industry," Tournava said.

Georgia is trying to meet its gas demand through the supplies from Azerbaijan. For example, the estimative supply of gas to Georgia will be about 2.689 billion cubic meters. Of these, 99.65 percent accounts for Azerbaijan, including 1.866 billion cubic meters from the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), and 813 million from the concern for the development of the Shah Deniz field. The remaining 0.35 percent (9.41 million cubic meters) of the demand will be met by local fields of gas.

Gas supply from Azerbaijan to Georgia may increase by 11 percent in 2019, Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR predicts.

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, development of filling stations under SOCAR’s brand and have an oil terminal in Georgia’s Kulevi Black Sea Port, which supplies Azerbaijani oil and oil products to the world markets.

It should be noted that Georgia is a key transit country for Azerbaijan, through which the Azerbaijan’s main pipelines are laid for the supply of oil and gas to the west. Today, the Baku-Supsa and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipelines are already operating in the neighboring country. Also Shah Deniz field  which began operation at the end of 2006, transports gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea to Turkey, through Goergia. The associated condensate is mixed with the oil from the ACG field and is transported to Turkey through Georgia, along the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline. Another energy project, in which Georgia was involved is TANAP.  On November 21, 2018, Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) have been joined along the shores of the Maritsa River at the Turkish-Greek border. As a result of the joining of these two pipelines, Azerbaijani natural gas from the Shah Deniz-2 field can be transported to Italy via Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Albania, and the Adriatic Sea.

So, currently, the Southern Gas Corridor project is being successfully implemented along this route. This is the largest infrastructure project in the region and little time left until the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor. Thus, last year was very important in terms of this large-scale project implementation.



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