Georgia not to replace Azerbaijani gas by Russian
By Nigar Abbasova
Export agreement on the Russian Gazprom’s gas supply to Georgia will not have any influence on the fuel supplies of Azerbaijan’s SOCAR Company, Trend quoted Mahir Mammadov, director general of SOCAR Energy Georgia’s as saying.
Gazprom and Georgia’s Gazko+ Company signed a contract for commercial supplies of Russian gas to Georgia on June 16. The volume of gas in the second half of the year is expected to be at the level of 100 million cubic meters. The contract is effective from July 1 through December 31, 2016.
Mammadov underlined that the agreement will not affect SOCAR’s supplies as the effective agreement between Azerbaijan and Georgia covers the period till 2030 and specifies the volumes.
The volume of annual export of gas which is extracted from Azerbaijan oilfields by own resources without the participation of foreign companies to Georgia amounts to 2 billion cubic meters.
Moreover, Georgia annually gets 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas extracted on offshore Shah Deniz field.
SOCAR is deeply involved in the energy market in the neighboring South Caucasus republic.
SOCAR Energy Georgia was established in 2006. The company's activity includes retail and bulk selling of fuel in Georgia, importing of petroleum and liquid gas, construction of oil terminals and warehouses.
The network of petrol stations of SOCAR Georgia Petroleum, a daughter company of SOCAR Georgia Petroleum has been expanding increasingly both in Tbilisi and all regions of Georgia. The first petrol station of the company was opened on April 25, 2008. Currently 144 stations (105 Petrol stations (20 combined CNG and Petrol), 8 CNG and 1 LPG) are operating in the country.
SOCAR is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, as well as oil and chemical products in domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to the industry and the public in Azerbaijan.
The company invests billions of dollars annually in transportation infrastructures and is involved in projects designed to increase Europe's energy security through diversification of natural gas.
Azerbaijan has long been one of Georgia’s largest trade partners, with trade turnover between the two countries reaching $1.35 billion in 2014. Azerbaijan mainly exports petroleum, petroleum oils and gases, gypsum, anhydrite, plaster and other products to Georgia.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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