Damaged S.Ossetia Gas Pipe Not Fully Repaired – Minister

It will be able to resume gas supply to breakaway South Ossetia after the damaged pipeline is fully restored, Alexandre Khetaguri, the Georgian energy minister, said on January 6.

Gazprom chief executive, Alexei Miller, told Russian PM, Vladimir Putin, at a meeting on January 5, that Georgia was prepared to resume gas supplies to South Ossetia.

“The pipeline was damaged at several various locations [during the August war]; we have repaired some of these damages, but one part of the pipeline still remains; we can not access to that location, because of the security reasons. The pipeline will be technically ready to deliver gas after we fully repair it,” Alexandre Khetaguri told the Rustavi 2 TV.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on December 31 that the pipeline was damaged in the village of Dirbi in the immediate vicinity of the breakaway region’s administrative border, which it said, was “in the high risk zone.”

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