Tbilisi hosts Continental Europe Energy Council Meeting

About 200 officials from over 70 companies operating in the oil and gas industry are gathered in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi to attend the 54th Meeting of the Continental Europe Energy Council between Friday and Saturday.

The forum was opened by Georgian Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili, who spoke about Georgia's preferable investment environment, created to attract international capital in various sectors of the economy, and especially in energy. 

He stressed the importance of energy independence for Georgia and noted the Government welcomed the inflow of international investment in the field. He added Georgia had "quite solid oil and gas resources".  

It is confirmed by past experience - at the peak of the 20th century, Georgia extracted more than three million tons of oil in the Samgori field alone. This is a precondition for us to be able to increase oil extraction," Davitashvili highlighted, adding "several licenses have been issued so far, which also include field exploration".

The Georgian Minister said the Government was aiming at attracting investment in oil and gas exploration and extraction, adding it hoped “in a few years” the country’s oil demand would be “fully met”, with a “significant contribution” made to local gas consumption from local extraction. The official called prospects of the latter “very promising” in comments to Meeting participants.