Oil and gas imports to Georgia rose by 13.7% in the first six months of 2017, in comparison with the same period for the previous year,
APA
reports.
Last month Georgia imported 85,000 tonnes of oil products, of which almost 14% was imported from Azerbaijan.
According to the Oil & Gas Journal, as of 2016 there were proven natural gas reserves in Azerbaijan amounting to around 35 trillion cubic feet, most of which is within the Shah Deniz field.
Azerbaijani is a key oil and gas producer in the Caspian Region as well as for European markets and its exports are central to the Azerbaijani economy. Most of Azerbaijani gas is exported to Turkey, through Georgia through the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP). However, small quantities are also exported to Greece through the Turkey-Greece interconnector.
Russia and Iran are also among importers of Azerbaijani gas. Between 2007 to 2014, Russia has imported small quantities of Azerbaijani gas through the Hajiqabul-Mozdok pipeline, whereas Iran imports small quantities of Azerbaijani gas through the Hajiqabul-Astara pipeline.
At the moment, the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), consisting of the South Caucasus, Trans-Anatolian and Trans Adriatic pipelines, is under way. Once completed it will transport Azerbaijani gas from the Shah Deniz field to Italy and Europe via Georgia, Turkey, Greece,
Albania.
However, in order to keep up with demands, Azerbaijani has to import gas to meet domestic needs as well. Earlier this month, a meeting between the president of SOCAR, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, and Chairman of the Board of the Public Joint-Stock Company Gazprom took place in Saint Petersburg.
Although SOCAR has yet to release an official statement regarding the meeting it seems that gas imports from Russia to Azerbaijan was one of the topics discussed.
“Official representatives of SOCAR have not commented on this visit yet, and there is no information pertaining to this on website of the State Oil Company. However, based on information from the Russian side, it can be assumed that the initiative of this meeting came from SOCAR, as it was announced that “at the meeting, the question of Gazprom delivering gas to Azerbaijan was raised”, Ilham Shaban, the head of the Center for Petroleum Studies of Caspian Barrel, was
quoted
by Meydan TV as saying.
