Gazprom not considering lowering price of natural gas for Georgia
Georgian Economy Minister Natia Turnava said that the aim of the revision of the contract with Gazprom was to achieve a price reduction for Georgia. Photo: SOCAR Georgia Gas.
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Gazprom is not considering lowering the price of natural gas for Georgia, and says the price will remain the same, said the press service of the company to Russian news agency TASS.
Georgian Economy Minister Natia Turnava said that the aim of the revision of the contract with Gazprom was to achieve a price reduction for Georgia.
Given that world oil prices are falling, the current revision of the already existing contract with Gazprom serves to reduce the price. I will not name specific figures due to commercial secrets, but I will tell you that the price of natural gas [should be reduced] approximately by 15 per cent," said Turnava.
Turnava said that Georgia plans to buy 200 million cubic metres of natural gas from Gazprom which is about eight per cent of the country’s total consumption of gas.
TASS reports Georgia bought 160 million cubic metres of natural gas in 2019.
TASS writes that Georgia has not bought natural gas from Russia since 2006 until last year.
The agency says that Georgia used to receive 10 per cent of the gas transit from Russia to Armenia and that Russia also paid monetary transit fees to Georgia.
Under 2019-2021 Gasification Action Plan, the number of districts to be gasified will increase to 300, including about 60 settlements in the Imereti region, west Georgia, announces the Ministry of Economy.
The government of Georgia is continuing to provide natural gas supply to areas of the country where natural gas is still not available.
Regulations on the provision of gas to Georgian consumers must be made stricter, says the Energy Ombudsman of Georgia Salome Vardiashvili.
The price of natural gas will be reduced in Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi as well as in the regions, announces the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission.
A new excise tax mode may be imposed on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the aim of which, its authors say, is to discourage the practice of declaring other petroleum products as excise free LPG, and to prevent tax avoidance when importing petroleum products.