Azerbaijan and Georgia switch to new level of cooperation in gas industry

Possibly today Azerbaijan and Georgia will sign a new agreement on purchase-sale of natural gas, a source from the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) told Turan.

SOCAR’s top managers have already departed to Tbilisi to familiarize themselves with the last draft of the agreement, which has been a subject of negotiation of the experts on the both sides in the past several weeks.

Last week Georgia Energy Minister Mariam Valishvili said that Georgia has been working with Azerbaijan on certain conditions of the contract, which have to be revised. She added that the price policy and certain volumes will be revised in the new contract.

As Turan has found out, the new agreement will have no fixed gas prices. Gas price will be set on the basis of the formula every quarter. Gas price will be tied up to price of oil and black oil.

* Azerbaijan started gas export to Georgia since January 2007, when Russian Gasprom company doubled the price. Last year Azerbaijan exported 2.1 bcm of gas to the Georgian market, of which 1.3 bcm was SOCAR’s gas and 800 mcm was gas of the Shah Deniz consortium.—0—