Although an agreement has been reached over the gas price for Georgia, issues related with purchase of shares in Georgia’s gas pipeline system, as well as tariffs for transit of Russian gas into Armenia via Georgia remain unsolved, the Russian energy giant Gazprom’s top executive Alexander Ryazanov said after two-hour talks with Georgian PM Zurab Nogaideli in Tbilisi on December 20.

The Deputy Chairman of Gazprom said at a joint news conference with PM Nogaideli said that Gazprom will increase gas price for Georgia from current USD 63 up to USD 110 per 1000 cubic meters from the next year.  
 
PM Nogaideli said that Gazprom will also increase the amount of gas deliveries to Georgia from current 1,30 billion cubic meters up to 2,25 billion cubic meters next year.

He also said that Gazprom will have a common approach in respect of the price policy in the South Caucasus region and will deliver gas to all the three countries of the region for USD 110.
 
Alexander Ryazanov said that currently two issues remain unsolved between Gazprom and Georgia.
 
“The first, we would like to return to discussions over purchase of Georgian gas pipeline system – at least the purchase of the gas pipeline, which passes through Georgia to Armenia. We have agreed to return to this issue in the first quarter of next year,” Alexander Ryazanov said.

“The second issue is payment for transit of Russian gas to Armenia. In our opinion, the current contract does not correspond market relations existing in Europe and in Russia. We think that it will be more reasonable to pay money for transit, instead of 10% of gas passing through this pipe to Armenia. We failed to reach agreements over this issue,” Ryazanov added.