GEORGIA STILL DEPENDS ON RUSSIAN GAS
By M. Alkhazashvili
Translated by Diana Dundua

The Messenger, Georgia
April 17 2007

Georgia should receive 250 million cubic metres of gas from
Azerbaijan’s Shah-Deniz field

Despite government promises, Russian Gazprom still remains Georgia’s
main gas supplier.

For various reasons, chances to receive gas from Kazakhstan were
ruled out and securing more natural gas from the Shah-Deniz field
also didn’t pan out.

Shah-Deniz gas went on line on December 15, 2006. According to the
contract, Georgia was to get 250 million cubic meters as part of
their quota of the gas in 2007, Azerbaijan was to get 2.5 billion
cubic meters and Turkey’s quota was 2.8 billion cubic meters reports
the newspaper Rezonansi.

In 2007, it was planned to extract a total of 5.8 billion cubic meters
of gas from Shah-Deniz but due to technical problems only 3 billion
cubic meters will be extracted, which means possibly Georgia will
not get its full share.

Reportedly, the Georgian population needs 960 million cubic metres of
gas for the rest of 2007. According to Azeri Energy Minister Natik
Aliyev, if Azerbaijan delivers to Georgia 2.5 million cubic meters
of gas per day, Georgia will have the opportunity to be freed from
Russia. Though the thing is that first the Azeri side should satisfy
its own demands, this means that Azeri gas export to Georgia depends
on its energy balance, reports the news agency Regnum.

In 2008, Georgia should receive 300 million cubic meters of gas
from Shah-Deniz.

Different from Georgia, neighbouring Armenia does not depend on
Russian gas any longer because the Iran-Armenian pipeline is online.

This new situation gives additional leverage to Russia to influence
Georgia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress