SOCAR Launches Oil Terminal in Georgia
Azerbaijan’s state oil company, SOCAR, has inaugurated its new terminal in Kulevi on Georgia’s Black Sea cost at an official ceremony attended by President Saakashvili and Azerbaijani Prime Minister Artur Rasizade on May 16.
“This is a very important day for Georgian economy and future development of Georgia. This is a very important day for Georgian-Azerbaijani friendship,” President Saakashvili said at the ceremony. “Those plans, which were made by us, together with Ilham Aliyev several years ago, are being carried out.”
SOCAR bought unfinished oil terminal in Kulevi in late 2006 from late tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili for undisclosed sum. SOCAR said that it had invested over USD 300 million in construction of the terminal.
SOCAR plans to ship 5 million tones of oil and oil products per year through the terminal at the first stage and to increase the capacity to 10 million tones in next two years. SOCAR, according to Reuters, also plans to build gas storage facility in Georgia.
Speaking at the ceremony in Kulevi, President Saakashvili said that Kulevi was “Georgia’s new sea gateway,” which along with planned free economic zone in Poti would create conditions for, as he put it, “total employment” of the local residents.
“My ambition is to turn Poti, Batumi, Kutaisi and several other cities of Georgia into the cities of total employment. It means that those, who want to have jobs and can work, should work,” he said. “We have launched construction of a large free economic zone in Poti… Our key task is to create new Dubai, new Singapore in Georgia under conditions of peace and stability. And this is not a fairy-tale.”
Georgia has sold a 51% stake of Poti port to the Investment Authority of the UAE’s Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) emirate, which, according to the Georgian officials, has committed to develop a free economic zone on 300 hectares of land in Poti and in addition to built a new port terminal on a 100 hectare site. Details of the deal remain unknown as agreement between the Georgian authorities and RAK Investment Authority is not yet available.