Georgia refused to Russian gas

To buy gas from “Gazprom” the country’s leadership will not be until the end of the year.

Georgia is not going to buy fuel from Gazprom until the end of the current year, the necessary volumes of natural gas will supply Azerbaijan, said energy Minister Kakha Kaladze.

To refuse of gas purchases Tbilisi, according to the head of Department, allows the agreement concluded with the Russian company. “We were given the opportunity to purchase gas from Azerbaijan or Iran. Today we decided to boot Azeri natural gas,” he said.

By the time will expire two-year contract with Gazprom, Georgia, according to Kaladze, will be even less dependent on Russian fuel supplies, since by this time to build a new gas storage facility.

Azerbaijan is the main supplier of gas to Georgia, the bulk of procurement accounts for the cold season. In 2018 Georgia will start to build underground gas storage facility, which is scheduled to enter service in 2020.

Tbilisi does not acquire the fuel from “Gazprom” since 2007, until the end of 2016 Georgia received a tenth part from total amount of deliveries of Russian gas to Armenia as transit fees.

The validity of this contract with Gazprom expired on 1 January, negotiations on a new agreement were delayed because of a dispute over the payment of transit: Russian company insisted on calculating the money, while Tbilisi wanted to get gas.

As a result, in mid-January, Georgia has accepted the offer of “Gazprom” concluded a new agreement for two years. According to the document, in 2017, the Russian side will pay for transit partly in cash and partly with fuel, and in 2018 — only financial sredstvami.

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