Gas price agreed with Georgia, says Gazprom

Dec 22, 2006, 17:45 GMT

Moscow - Three Georgian companies have sealed contracts for 2007 gas deliveries from Russian gas giant Gazprom, preventing a threatening conflict over gas supplies, a Gazprom official said Friday.

The contracts amount to 1.1 billion cubic metres of Russian gas at the asking price of 235 US dollars per 1,000 cubic metres, the head of Gazprom Export, Alexander Medvedev, told reporters in Moscow.

Georgia has yet to confirm the agreement. Economics Minister Giorgi Arveladse had rejected Gazprom's demands Thursday in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

Russian gas company Itera shut off gas supplies to six Georgian cities and districts Thursday for not paying their bills.

Shortly before Medvedev's announcement, a spokesman for Gazprom, Sergei Kupriyanov said Friday in Moscow that as Georgia had not reacted, the country apparently did not want to buy Russian gas in 2007.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged during a visit to Tbilis to transfer 800 million cubic metres of gas from its Azerbaijani shipments.

Together with 250 million cubic metres from a bilateral agreement with Azerbaijan, Georgia has secured over 1 billion cubic metres of gas.

The Caucasus republic's demand for gas in 2007 is estimated at between 1.7 billion and 1.8 billion cubic metres.