Carrying capacity of Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline to more than triple

By 2017 carrying capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline will increased up to 25 billion cub.m. a year, Azerbaijani Minister of Energy and Industry Natig Aliyev told Georgian journalists in Baku yesterday.

"By 2017 the pipeline will be able to transport 25 billion cub.m. of natural gas and in the future the carrying capacity will grow up to 40-45 billion," he said.

Aliyev also said that Azerbaijan is going to implement several new projects jointly with Georgia. "We have an ambitious task in the energy field - to build the energy corridor up to Turkey jointly with Georgia," Minister added.

On December 26-27, 2012 Georgian Premier Ivanishvili paid his first official visit to Azerbaijan. In Baku the representatives of Georgian and Azerbaijani governments have had the working meetings as well. Among the discussed issues was reduction of natural gas price by Azerbaijan. Ivanishvili said that Azerbaijan will not reduce the gas price, because it is very low - $145 per 1000 cub.m. In Azerbaijan itself gas price is $130 per 1000 cub.m., he said. "We need to look for the possibilities to reduce gas prices inside the country," Premier added.

The sides have also discussed the possibility of import of electric energy from Azerbaijan to Georgia. "We will need extra power during the winter period, including January, February and March, to avoid any problems," said Georgian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Kakhi Kaladze. He said that Georgia imports part of electric energy from Russia, but there is also demand in import from Azerbaijan. Kaladze did not specify the volume of import.

* At present carrying capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline is about 8 billion cub.m. a year. A parallel pipeline will be built in Azerbaijan to increase its carrying capacity.-0-