Opposition Demands Energy Minister’s Resignation for Gazprom Deal

(Tbilisi, July 25, 2003, Civil Georgia) – Leader of the opposition News Rights party Davit Gamkrelidze is categorically against the agreement on strategic cooperation between Gazprom and Georgia and demands Energy Minister Davit Mirtskhulava’s impeachment.

“I would gladly support Mirtskhulava’s impeachment. He never knows anything what happens in the energy sector of the country. He has personal interests in the agreement,” Leader of the opposition United Democrats party Zurab Zhvania said on July 25. 

Fuel and Energy M!
inister Davit Mirtskhulava dismissed the opposition leaders’ statements as a part of pre-election campaign and accused them of having personal interests in the energy sector of the country.

Observers say entry of Russian energy giant GazProm to the Georgian market concerns the United States, fearing the GazProm deal poses direct threat to the implementation of the US-led Shah-Deniz project, which is to carry Azeri gas to the western markets via Georgia and Turkey.

The Minister admits that the agreement with Gazprom really contained some paragraphs, which were unacceptable for the United States, but important amendments have been made to it and “now, it complies with the US, as well as Georgian interests.”

The agreement, which was signed between Georgian Energy Minister Davit Mirtskhulava and the GazProm chief executive Aleksei Miller on July 1 in Moscow, envisages supplying Georgia with gas; the Russian company is also ready to rehabilitate Georgia’s gas !
distribution system, as well as two trunk-line gas pipelines,!
one of which will be used for transportation of gas to Armenia and the other – to Turkey, via Adjara Autonomous Republic.