FIVES ROUND OF AZERI-GEORGIAN NEGOTIATIONS ON GAS EXPORT

The fives round of negotiations on the project on construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline for gas transportation from Shakh-Deniz contract gas field completed in Zurich, SOCAR officials informed CN without going into details on the results of negotiations.

The last negotiations were aimed at determining of tariffs for the Georgian side, as well as providing secure operation of the gas pipeline. Today, the sides of the project reached an accord on the right on land tenure with the corridor of gas pipeline, as well as on keeping to environment protecting and technical standards. Under the terms of Azeri-Turkish sale agreement, 89.2 billion cubic meters of Azeri gas will be exported to Turkey within 2004-2018. Thus, in 2004 the initial volume of the export is to stand at 2 billion cubic meters, in 2005 v 3 billion cubic meters, in 2006 v 5 billion cubic meters and in 2007-2018 v some 6.6 billion cubic meters of gas each year.