Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 16 / Trend , E.Ismayilov /
The amount of necessary investment in the second production year of the implementation of three-year program on gasification of 31 gas economies in Georgia, which are in use of SOCAR Georgia Gas (a subsidiary of SOCAR Energy Georgia) will amount about $8 million, a source in SOCAR Energy Georgia (a subsidiary of SOCAR) said.
"The amount of investment in the second production year will constitute $28 million which envisages construction of new pipelines and rehabilitation of old ones," the source said.
The source said the amount of investment is $23 million in the first production year, about $15-16 million of which have been already spent. "The rest of the investment is now at the stage of assimilation," the source said.
He said that investment is at the stage of assimilation, because SOCAR acquired the distribution networks only in February 2009, and therefore productive year is incomplete.
Earlier, SOCAR Georgia Gas Head Anar Mammadov said the investment will be spent on constructing gas distribution networks, with a total length of up to 800 kilometers for 57,000 new potential customers.
At present, demand of the company's gas filling stations is about 80-90 million cubic meters per year. The company plans to increase number of subscribers from 60,000 to 150,000 in total. Following increase in the number of consumers, annual demand of these networks will double at least.
Dec. 26, SOCAR and the Georgian Government signed an agreement to operate 30 gas supply grids and gas distribution networks in the Kakheti, Mtskheta-Mtianeti, Shida and Kvemo Kartli, Ajaria, Guria, Imereti, Samegrelo regions of Georgia. These networks are operated by 24 companies. In April, SOCAR Energy Georgia acquired a gas distribution network in the Marneuli region densely populated by Azerbaijanis. Marneuli has 31 gas supply grids operated by SOCAR Georgia.
Primarily estimated minimum amount of investment in this project was $40 million, the cost of the gasification, regarding rehabilitation of distribution networks may take approximately $70-80 million at the initial stage.