Tskhinvali Gas Pipe Repaired
Itera-Georgia, one of five gas distributor companies in Georgia, said it was ready to resume gas supplies to breakaway South Ossetia, but the company needed a special permission order from the Georgian government for that purpose.
A representative of the company told Civil.Ge on January 21, that “from our part there is readiness” to resume gas supplies disrupted as a result of the pipeline damage during the August war. Itera-Georgia was supplying Tskhinvali with gas before the disruption.
According to the Georgian Energy Ministry, a government special permission order is required for a company for conducting commercial activities in the breakaway regions, as it is envisaged by the law on occupation, passed by the Georgian Parliament in October, 2008. Speaking with Civil.Ge on January 21 an official from the Energy Ministry has failed to specify when such permission would be issued to Itera-Georgia.
Gas network in the breakaway region is connected to Georgia’s one of the main gas pipelines through an Agara-Tskhinvali pipe with a total length of about 17 kilometers.
Agara-Tskhinvali pipeline has not been operating since the August war; in particular on August 8 the Georgian Gas Transportation Corporation, a daughter company of the state-owned Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation, has cut off gas supplies after a significant gas leak was detected on the pipe.
The pipeline was damaged on the Georgian side of the South Ossetian administrative border, close to the village of Dirbi. The place where the pipe was damaged was “in an area where heavy trucks and tanks moved around during the conflict,” according to the OSCE report on the matter.
Disrupted gas supplies to the breakaway region became a source of mutual accusations between Tbilisi and Moscow with the latter accusing Georgia of “inhuman act” suggesting that Tbilisi deliberately cut off gas supplies to Tskhinvali. Georgia in response was accusing Moscow of “campaign of demagogy” and of “politicizing” the issue. Tbilisi was also saying that it was ready to immediately repair the damage pipe as soon as security guarantees were provided to its workers as the village of Dirbi is located in an immediate vicinity of the administrative border.
OSCE Greek chairmanship sent its special envoy, Charalampos Christopoulos, to Tbilisi and Tskhinvali on January 12-13 with a task to look into the matter. He was also accompanied by an Austrian independent expert, who was tasked with assessing the technical aspects of the gas supply and the pipeline.
According to the report, prepared by the expert and seen by Civil.Ge, the Georgian Gas Transportation Corporation started repair works on January 15 and the pipeline was already fixed by January 16.
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