President: No Need for Russian Gas after Shah-Deniz Launches

President Saakashvili said on December 27 that Georgia will rely mostly on Azerbaijani gas as soon as technical problems are fixed at the drilling wells on the Shah-Deniz gas field.

Speaking at a meeting with Georgian businessmen, Saakashvili noted that Georgia now has to pay higher price for Russian gas.

?But as soon as the damage is repaired on the Shah-Deniz field in a month, or maybe month and a half, we will no longer need Russian gas,? Saakashvili said.

Gazprom has already contracted with four companies in Georgia to supply a total of 1,45 billion cubic meters of gas in 2007.

KazTransGaz-Tbilisi, a company distributing gas in the capital city, has a three month contract with Gazprom, while the other three companies including Itera-Georgia, distributing gas in the Georgia?s regions, have signed one-year contracts with Gazprom.

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