Richard Morningstar, the U.S. secretary of state’s special envoy for Eurasian energy, met with Georgian Energy Minister, Alexander Khetaguri, in Tbilisi on July 5.

Ambassador Morningstar was accompanying the U.S. delegation, led by Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, which paid a six-hour visit to the Georgian capital on July 5.

“We have discussed regional energy issues, including related transit of gas from Azerbaijan via Georgia,” Khetaguri told Civil.Ge on July 6.

Khetaguri said Georgia’s trunk gas pipeline, transiting natural gas from Russia into Armenia was not discussed at the meeting. Georgian PM Nika Gilauri said last week that although Georgia had no immediate plans to sell this North-South Gas Pipeline, he said sell of minority of its share through initial public offering at London Stock Exchange was possible after few years.

In early 2005, when the Georgian authorities suggested that the pipeline could have been sold to Russia’s gas monopoly, Gazprom, then U.S. special advisor on Caspian energy, Steve Mann, warned the Georgian authorities against taking such decision.