Politics

Home page

Politics

Azerbaijan doesnâ€™t cut gas exports to Georgia after April 1

02 April 2007 10:20 (UTC +04:00)

Unexpectedly, Azerbaijan didnâ€™t halt natural gas exports to Georgia via the old pipeline on April 1.
The Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation told APA-Economics that the Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli will have negotiations to prolong favorable-price gas import period and the amount of imports during his visit to Baku on April 4. The delegation will include Energy Minister Nika Giluari and Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation Director General Alexandr Khetaguri.
Georgia intends to prolong the deal to continue to receive 1.3mln cubic meters of natural gas a day from Azerbaijan after April 1 through the old pipeline at a price of $120 per 1,000 cubic meters besides 1mln cubic meters of Azeri gas per day it is importing through the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline.
Georgia seeks to get more Azeri gas while Azerbaijan said it delivered additional gas to Georgia in winter crisis.
â€œAzerbaijan will give priority to its own demand for national gas while Georgia seeks to receive more. The agreement, we have with Georgia, is expiring in April. We are supplying Georgia with associated gas coming from Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli Field. The gas exports were planned for winter, was aimed to bail Georgia out of energy crisis. I think we should help Georgia when it sees a crisis. But, Azerbaijan should think about itself now too. The more we pump to Georgia, the less we will have for our needs,â€ said Azerbaijanâ€™s Energy Minister Natig Aliyev last week.
Azerbaijan has not halted gas exports to Georgia while it had been expected to do on April 1.
If the agreement is prolonged, Georgia may completely refuse to buy high-priced Russian gas during summer.
The issue will be discussed during the Georgian Premierâ€™s visit to Azerbaijan. /APA-Economics/