Saakashvili: Georgia has Guaranteed Energy Security
Georgia, according to President Saakashvili, has achieved ?its share of energy security.?
Speaking to Georgian reporters on June 26 in Istanbul, where he was attending a summit of BSEC leaders wherein energy cooperation was high on the agenda, he said Georgia ?should not worry.?
Saakashvili pointed out that Georgia already receives gas from Azerbaijan. He said a potential Trans-Caspian gas pipeline, if it were to materialize, would bring Central Asian hydrocarbons via Azerbaijan and Georgia to Europe.
He said that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline seemed ?unreal? a decade ago, but was a reality now. The same, he said, would happen in relation to the Trans-Caspian Pipeline project.
?So we have already solved our energy problem,” he said. “Now we are helping Europe to solve its problem [through diversification of gas supplies], which in turn will increase Georgia?s importance.?
Georgia currently receives 1.2 million cubic meters of gas per day from the Azerbaijani state company, AzerGaz, for USD 120 per 1,000 cubic meters. It also receives gas from Azerbaijan?s Shah-Deniz field. More than half of Georgia?s gas needs, however, are still met by Russia at USD 235 per 1,000 cubic meters.
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