Azerbaijan, Baku, July 14 /Trend/
SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) displays a great interest in the possible acquisition of shares of the main gas pipeline in Georgia, the head of SOCAR Energy Georgia (SOCAR's subsidiary) Mahir Mammadov said on July 14.
According to him, negotiations on this issue are not conducted yet. However, the company closely observes developments around the possible sale of the participation share in the pipeline, because this project assumes great interest for SOCAR.
He also noted that SOCAR has extensive experience in the operation of major pipelines. Currently, the company owns all gas transpiration and distribution facilities in Azerbaijan.
Today SOCAR exports its gas to Georgia. In addition, through SOCAR Energy Georgia, the company actively works in country's gas distribution market, where it owns about 30 networks. Significant investments have been made in the development of these networks.
Earlier, the Government of Georgia withdrew gas pipelines from the list of strategic facilities. This process envisages the privatization of part of the participation share. The supporters of this process say that the privatization of part of the participation share by any company will improve the efficiency of the pipeline.
Earlier Kazakh KazMunayGas and Russian Gazprom displayed an interest in acquiring participation share in the pipeline.