| GOGC Invested GEL 70 Million in 2008 |
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21/04/2009 15:02 (213 Day 16:46 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- The FINANCIAL interviewed Zurab Janjgava, the General Director of GOGC, to find out the main challenges in oil and gas in Georgia and how the country can face them.
The Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation (GOGC) invested GEL 70,000,000 in the restoration and renewal of gas and oil pipelines in 2008. According to Zurab Janjgava, General Director of GOGC, 2008 was rather complex for the corporation, but the problems have been overcome.
The FINANCIAL interviewed Zurab Janjgava, the General Director of GOGC, to find out the main challenges in oil and gas in Georgia and how the country can face them.
“For the Oil and Gas Corporation, as equally for the whole country, the year 2008 was rather complex. The month of August was among one of the most difficult ones. Nevertheless, together we were able to overcome all the problems and successfully implement a number of vitally important projects for the country”.
“In 2007 volumes extracted locally reached 56.5 thousand tonnes with a slight change of 52.8 thousand in 2008.”
Q. The current political situation in Georgia and constant threats from Russia are an obstacle for the Nabucco Project. Europe has already been left without gas once when Russia provoked a conflict with Ukraine . What are the perspectives of the Nabucco Project for the next 3 years taking into consideration the current political situation in the South Caucasus?
A. The Nabucco pipeline is another response to this growing demand. The vast proven gas reserves of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan - complemented with recent findings of a Turkmen gas field audit estimating the discovery to be among several other of the richest gas deposits in the world - require optimal transporting routes from the landlocked countries in to Europe.
It’s a means of diversifying its gas importing sources while at the same time reducing the dependency degree on a single or dominant supplier. By the creation of optional routes Europe insulates itself from the monopolistic character threats which include loss of leverage on gas price and gas supply terms.
Q. How do you regard the strategic importance of the Nabucco Project for Europe, Georgia and Russia?
A. Bearing in mind increasing gas demand forecasts and the chance of facing a supply gap Europe will need stable and reliable supplier countries, which truly have the potential of developing their gas fields and are open for fair international cooperation in that respect.
Advanced progress in the gas extraction industry in Central Asia and in the Caspian Sea Region provides grounds to expand transporting capacities and create a new Southern Energy Corridor which ultimately, due to its convenient geopolitical location, passes through Georgia creating a shorter route and consequently lower gas price for Europe compared to the Russian option.
Q. What were the total oil and gas transits through Georgia in 2008?
A. In 2008 the South-Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) was operating throughout the whole year and transported 4,400,000,000 cubic metres of Azerbaijan’s gas compared to 2007 when the transported volume reached only 1,200,000,000 cubic metres of gas.
In terms of oil transit: Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan delivered more than 245,000,000 barrels of oil in 2008 compared to 212,000,000 barrels the previous year.
Considering that in 2007 the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline was under rehabilitation the transported amount reached only 44,000 barrels of oil but increased drastically after completion of the works to the end of 2008 with a total amount of 5,000,000 barrels in that year.
Q. Which of the implemented projects were most important for GOGC in 2008?
A. In 2008 there were two projects that could be identified as having noteworthy realization. Both of them are complementary to each other, equally bearing significant social and economic value.
Through gasification projects we completed a trunk pipeline in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region; added two off-take points at Sagaredjo and Khoni; have constructed gas distribution stations in a number of towns: Sagaredjo, Tsalka, Akhalkalaki, Aspindza and Akhaltsikhe.
All of these construction and rehabilitation projects serve on one hand to bring natural gas to a larger number of the population and improve their living conditions while on the other uphold the trend of decentralization and create an attractive environment for businesses to be developed on a regional level with sustained gas supplies.
The contractual arrangement signed with SOCAR in 2008 has increased the reliability and stability of gas supplies. The contract enhanced the quality of independence and diversified gas supply sources. It’s a truly lucrative commercial deal that enabled making the tariff structure insulated from various economic risks.
Q. How much was invested by GOGC in the restoration and renewal of gas and oil pipelines in Georgia in 2008?
A. GOGC has continued its rehabilitation and construction works on pipeline restoration in parallel to the Energy Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project with the Millennium Challenge Georgia Fund. Out of the total 22 identified rehabilitation sites on the North-South Gas main pipeline we have completed works on 15 of them. To ensure smooth function of trunk pipelines during the autumn/winter seasons and spring flood periods, anti-erosion and river bank protection works have been conducted along the North Caucasus and Vladikavkaz-Tbilisi main gas pipelines. All these works have reached the investment amount of almost GEL 70,000,000 in 2008.
Written By Levan Lomtadze
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