“Historic moment”: Georgia receives gas from three countries

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“It is a historic moment, when our country receives gas from three countries simultaneously,” Georgian Energy Minister Nika Gilauri said while turning on the tap at the gas distributing station in Marneuli, through which the Iranian gas will be supplied to Georgia. “At 11:00 a.m. the gas from Russia started coming. For the recent days we have been receiving 2.5 million cubic meters of gas daily from Azerbaijan. Yesterday, at 11:00 p.m. Azerbaijan started receiving gas from Iran, which gives us an opportunity to have increased amount of gas from Azerbaijan. Thus, we can start gas supplies to all the cities and towns and villages in the country,” a REGNUM correspondent quotes Gilauri as saying.

As Gilauri said, within the next few days the Georgian gas distributing system will be filled and the gas will be supplied to the customers in full amount. “Now Georgia has diversified gas supplies from three countries,” he stressed. At the same moment, the minister said, the agreement with Iran is a force majeure measure and under it Georgia will be receiving the Iranian gas for a short period of time – about a month. “However, we have a prospect to continue it in the future,” noted Nika Gilauri. “Besides, we have a prospect of receiving gas from Azerbaijan at any period. The main thing is, the country has an opportunity to receive gas from the three countries if needed. If some technical or other problems occur at any of the directions, the country will be supplied with gas from diversified sources. Of course, different suppliers export different amounts of gas, but we can already state it will be impossible that the country is left without gas at all.”