Opinion: “Georgia to replace Azerbaijani gas with Russian for two reasons”

Georgia will replace half of the Azerbaijani gas with the Russian supplies, — has announced Georgian expert Soso Tsiskarishvili, referring to the results of the meeting between Georgian Minister of Energy Kakha Kaladze and the “Gazprom” representative, held on December 27, 2015, Switzerland.

Georgia is truly interested in buying Russian energy resources, — notes Eldar Kasayev, a member of the expert council of the Union of Oil and Gas Producers of Russia, Orientalist. «This issue has a political subtext: Georgia, as well as Europe, wants to diversify its sources of gas for the country’s economy. This is to ensure that Azerbaijan lacks dominance in this market,» told RUSARMINFO Eldar Kasayev. According to the expert, the economic component of the gas transformations is another important aspect. “The development of the Shah-Deniz-2, the Azerbaijani main project, is at low pace and with the current decreasing prices in the oil market, Azerbaijan will not be able to increase the share of investments: in order to meet its obligations, the Azerbaijani side has already appealed to Russia for gas supplies,” said the expert.

Recently, Russia has produced more than 200 billion cubic meters of gas that remains unsold. According to Eldar Kasayev, Russia can deliver it to Georgia, and even to the moon, if the pricing is more or less adequate. According to the Gazprom official data, in 2014 Russia exported to the European countries 146.6 billion cubic meters of gas. Of these, 80% consumed in the Western Europe, and 20% — in the Central European states.