Rosneft-Petrocas joint venture to increase rail transit through Georgia

Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft and Georgian oil transportation company Petrocas Energy Group are banding together in a new joint venture to increase cargo transit through Georgia.

The two companies have created a joint enterprise with the aim of increasing the amount of cargo that passes through Georgia by 30 percent.

Petrocas Energy Group president Vano Nakaidze believed the extra movement on the railway would lead to additional income for the state budget and Georgian railway.

The project was officially revealed at International Petroleum Week (IP Week) in London, England. Petrocas Energy Group and Rosneft held a joint presentation titled ‘Future Corridor’ at the event, which involved about 200 representatives from the international energy and financial sector.

The event was dedicated to the recent creation of the joint enterprise by Petrocas Energy Group and Rosneft.

At the end of last year Rosneft signed a document that would see it acquire a 49 percent stake in Petrocas Energy International, and create a joint venture with the oil transport company that operates in the South Caucasus region, which sits on the border of Eastern Europe and southwest Asia.

At IP Week, the sides also spoke about attracting additional cargo and investments in Georgia’s transit corridor. More specifically, the talks focused on increasing the volume of oil products’ that transit through Georgia.

In London Rosneft and Petrocas Energy Group representatives presented their vision of all the possibilities the newly established joint enterprise could create. They said their joint venture would operate in the trading and logistics area as well as retail of oil products in the Caspian, South Caucasian and Central Asian regions direction.

The idea was that these actions would stimulate the industry and increase business activities in the Silk Road corridor, attract more investments and create additional jobs in the region.

Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Petrocas Energy Group, David Iakobashvili, said the Supervisory Board was "proud” they were creating a new, important era in Georgia.