The FINANCIAL — SOCAR Georgia Gas has recently finished building 7.3 km of gas pipeline in the village of Upper Osiauri, Khashuri Region, under the presidential programme Gas in Every Village.
The FINANCIAL — SOCAR Georgia Gas has recently finished building 7.3 km of gas pipeline in the village of Upper Osiauri, Khashuri Region, under the presidential programme Gas in Every Village.
President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Aleksandre Khetaguri, and Mair Mamedov, General Director of SOCAR Energy Georgia, opened the newly constructed gas pipeline. This gas pipeline will supply 260 houses in Osiauri with natural gas at the same time as significant concessions.
In total SOCAR Georgia Gas has build 38.4 km of pipeline in the Khashuri region. The company has also ensured gasification of the town Khashuri, Surami and several villages including Tskhramukha, Chalisubani, Osiauri, Bekhami and Vaka. This means that natural gas is now supplied to 4,445 subscribers in the named points alone. SOCAR Georgia Gas is going to build 162 km of pipeline across the whole country and include 8,341 potential customers in the gasification process by the end of this year.
Constructing gas pipeline of 2,833 km, gasification of 166,000 subscribers, investments of 120 million USD and natural gas where it has not been before – this is just a partial list of the activities that SOCAR Georgia Gas has managed to implement during the period of its existence.
The investment programme of the country includes gasification of every region of the country. This means that gas will soon be available to hundreds of thousands of families. The gas market is one of the main directions of SOCAR in Georgia. SOCAR Energy Georgia founded daughter company SOCAR Georgia Gas in August of 2007 aiming to establish itself well on the gas market. The main activity of this company is gasification of Georgian towns and villages as well as supplying gas to social and commercial customers.
SOCAR Georgia Gas bought 30 gas distributing companies in Georgia for the purpose of the gasification of Georgia. According to the agreement with the Ministry of Economy of Georgia the company has developed a three year investment programme, and extensive activities for new gas pipelines as well as rehabilitation of depreciated gas networks are implemented specifically under this agreement. The company is aiming to implement a large-scale programme of gasification in all the regions of Georgia including Kakheti, Mtsketa-Mtianeti, Shida Kartli, Lower Kartli, Adjara, Guria, Imereti and Samegrelo.
According to the gasification programme new gas pipelines were built in more than 100 towns, villages and settled points of Georgia in 2010-2011. The total length of pipeline is 1,500 km and is intended for distributing gas to 115 thousand new gas subscribers. As well as this the company has managed to rehabilitate already existing pipelines of more than 245 km in length. In total according to the terms of the investment programme the construction of 2,833 km of gas pipeline and gasification of 166,000 customers is planned.
Gasification of Poti is an especially important one of its current activities. The gasification process of the town is being done by European technologies. The pipeline is mainly being constructed by underground gas supplying polyethylene pipes. In general the company is using polyethylene pipes in all the regions where it is technically possible. This significantly increases the lifetime of the pipeline and its utilization and more importantly reduces risks of gas leakage.
The company pays special attention to the problem of subscribers becoming registered and ordering. In this regard new technologies are constantly being implemented. To detect gas leaks the company is replacing all old meters with new ones in every region, which are equipped with a thermoregulation system. Up till now 90 thousand new gas meters have already been installed. At the same time they are also changing amortized gas regulators and other machinery in the gas network. Huge attention is being paid to the increase of technical staff’s qualifications in the subject of new technologies. Thanks to the works already implemented gas loss in the gas regulators has decreased by more than five times. Equalling this rate to the statutory limit is expected by the end of this year.
Aiming to increase efficiency and improve management, SOCAR Georgia Gas created regional gas companies in every region since 2010, for example SOCAR Georgia Gas Imereti etc. This has significantly improved the activities of the company in every settled point, and increased the quality of road farms’ activites. Georgia Gas is implementing projects related to natural gas with Georgian businessmen. The resources of Georgian companies are being attracted for the construction of new gas pipelines and rehabilitation of old ones which supports the employment of the local populations in the regions.
The company pays a lot attention to the constant distribution of gas, taking into consideration the importance of gas as an energy resource for the welfare of the Georgian population. The company provided its daughter companies with more than 56 million cubic metres of gas as a social service in 2011. It has managed to import over 31 million cubic metres of gas in the first four months of the current year. As well as this SOCAR Georgia Gas supplied 563 million cubic metres of gas to commercial organizations last year. This rate has increased by 219 million cubic metres this year.
SOCAR Georgia Gas has invested 120 million USD in gas infrastructure over the course of its existence. Investments of the current year total 18 million USD.
The company has paid approximately 80 million GEL to the budget in taxes. According to the current year’s data SOCAR Georgia Gas has already paid 35 million GEL to the budget. The company got international quality certificate ISO 9001:2008 for import, realization, natural gas distribution, gasification and exploitation of gas distribution networks in 2010. This is remarkable considering that SOCAR Georgia Gas is the first company in Georgia to have been awarded an ISO quality certificate in terms of gasification.
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