Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr S. Aliyev / The signing of a new contract with Georgia for supply of Azerbaijani gas in 2008 will be considered after Azerbaijan determines the volume of gas to be produced in 2008, the Azerbaijani Government said. The contract may be signed in November 2007.
The price of the gas for Georgia may increase compared to the price for this year which is $120 per 1,000 cu m, the Government said but did not reveal how much the price would rise.
Georgia only receives Azerbaijani gas from Shah Deniz field which is developed by a consortium of foreign countries.
The tariffs to envisaged in the new contract will be dramatically lower than those of Russian Gazprom ($235 per 1,000 cu m), The Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli said previously. "We will probably carry on purchasing Russian gas at the beginning of the year, but the most part will be imported from Azerbaijan. We commenced changing from Russian gas to Azerbaijani gas. In November Georgia and Azerbaijan will sign a new agreement," he said. According to Nogaideli, Georgia's dependence on Russian gas has dropped from 100% to 50% and owing to Azerbaijani gas it will decrease to 20% in 2008.
Georgia's yearly gas demand varies from between 1.8 to 2bln cu m.