Georgia, Gazprom Agree to New Gas Transit Under Previous Terms

Georgian Energy Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Kakha Kaladze said that the agreement between Russia and Georgia implies that Georgia is still under the terms of the previous contract and will receive 10 percent of the natural gas transit.

TBILISI (Sputnik) – Georgian authorities and the Russian energy giant Gazprom have formalized a new agreement allotting Tbilisi 10 percent out of overall supplies to neighboring Armenia in transit fees, Georgian Energy Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Kakha Kaladze said Saturday.

Georgia imports the majority of its gas from neighboring Azerbaijan. Although Tbilisi has not acquired gas from Russia since 2007, it gets 10 percent of Russian gas as a transit fee to Armenia.

"The agreement implies that we are still under the terms of the previous contract, and Georgia will receive 10 percent of the natural gas transit," Kaladze told reporters.

The latest deal was reached after months of regular negotiations following the expiration of a previous Gazprom-Georgia agreement on December 31, 2015.

The minister expressed hope that the new deal, in force until the end of 2016, would yield to monetary compensation at next stages of negotiation, a position that Tbilisi had lobbied for in lieu of a transit fee.