Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.11
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) refused to increase the tariffs for gas for the commercial consumers in Georgia, SOCAR Energy Georgia company (SOCAR's subsidiary in Georgia) told Trend Feb.11.
"SOCAR hasn't increased the gas prices for commercial consumers in Georgia," said the company. "KazTransGas-Tbilisi was the initiator of increasing the prices for the commercial structures."
"After the release of their statement, we also had certain opinion on this issue. At the same time, we didn't plan to increase the prices for bakeries and educational institutions," said the company. "But as a result, we absolutely abandoned this idea [increasing the prices for all consumers]."
The notification of KazTransGas is still in force, according to the source.
KazTransGas-Tbilisi LLC will increase the tariffs for gas for legal entities to 0.9 GEL ($0.44) per cubic meter from March 1.
"Nevertheless, the prices for the gas delivered from Azerbaijan weren't increased and the company has no such plans for the near future."
"Nor there have been any appeals on the price increase," he said. "We are, of course, experiencing some difficulties due to the devaluation of Georgia's national currency, but we will find all the resources, necessary to compensate the losses, within the company, not by raising prices."
Currently, the tariff for the natural gas in Tbilisi stands at 0.4562 GEL ($0.22) per cubic meter, and in the regions it ranges from 0.4 GEL (about $0.2) to 0.5 GEL ($ 0.24) per cubic meter.
The commercial customers currently pay 75 tetri (about $0.37) to SOCAR Energy Georgia for each cubic meter of gas used.
Azerbaijan supplies over 80 percent of the gas consumed in Georgia.
Edited by CN
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