Azernews.Az

BAKU - Azerbaijan’s state energy firm SOCAR is reportedly among potential buyers of a Georgian pipeline pumping natural gas from Russia to Armenia through Georgian territory, along with Russian gas giant Gazprom and Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGas. The Georgian media also circulated that Tbilisi will not allow the Russian company to acquire a stake in the pipeline project.
Georgian Economic Development Minister Vera Kobalia has told local TV channels that her country had no intention to sell out the Armenia-bound pipeline. The Georgian government plans to sell only 10-15 percent of the shares in the next two to three years. In any case, the controlling stock of the pipeline will be owned by Tbilisi, Kobalia said.
The reports about Azerbaijan’s buying a stake in the pipeline are being anxiously followed in Armenia. Vahe Sarkisian, an expert with the Mitk research center, told a news conference Monday that Yerevan should avail of all means of pressure on Tbilisi to counter the pipeline’s being acquired by either Azerbaijan or Turkey. He said Azerbaijan’s "laying its hands" on this conduit would imply it could "strangle Armenia any time".
Sarkisian said Armenia should capitalize on all of its international leverage to ensure that the stake in the pipeline ends up being acquired by a party that has no political interests involved.
The analyst claimed that the Georgian economics minister’s statement about Tbilisi’s retaining the controlling stock was false. He said that earlier – when Georgia received funds from US lenders to refurbish the pipeline in 2005 - Tbilisi assumed a commitment to privatize the pipeline and sell its controlling stock by 2011.
Amid circulating reports on a Georgian pipeline stake, SOCAR said it had no official information on the issue.
The Azerbaijani state energy firm already has extensive operations in Georgia. Besides the capital, Tbilisi, SOCAR runs gas distribution networks in 70 percent of the neighboring South Caucasus republic’s territory, as well as some 30 gas-filling stations.