Russian gas supply resumes to Georgia but row unresolved



By Adlan Djikayev
AFP
VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia
Petroleumworld.com 01 30 06

Russian gas supplies to neighbouring Georgia resumed on Sunday, a week after a series of mysterious explosions sabotaged the main pipeline between the two countries and dragged their already tense relations to a new low.

"Gas deliveries started shortly after 10:00 am (0700 GMT)," Vladimir Ivanov, spokesman for the emergency situations ministry in the Russian border province of North Ossetia, told AFP.

Residents in the impoverished former Soviet republic have been suffering severe energy shortages since the explosions on January 22 wrecked the pipeline carrying nearly all of Georgia's natural gas supplies from Russia.

Electricity supplies were also disrupted when a separate explosion targeted a power line from Russia across the Caucasus into Georgia.

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli confirmed that gas supplies were resuming but said some people would be without full power until February 6 or 7.
Part of Tbilisi should start receiving gas on Sunday and the rest of the capital on Tuesday or Wednesday, the Tbilgaz company said.

Repairs to the Russian pipeline were completed on Saturday following what officials said were repeated difficulties in carrying out the work high in the snow-covered Caucasus mountains.

Russian officials said "terrorists" were behind the blasts that damaged the gas and electricity condiuts. No further clues have been offered as to the alleged attackers' identity.

Georgia's government suggested that the Russian authorities themselves orchestrated the bombing to apply economic pressure on its pro-Western neighbour in the middle of a harsh winter. Moscow denied the charge.

The blasts, which came after Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom doubled the price it charges for the gas, spurred Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his government into vowing to end their country's almost total dependence on Russian energy sources.

"The Georgian authorities will do everything so that our people are never again put in such a situation," Nogaideli told reporters on Sunday. "Everyone saw clearly that Georgia cannot be broken."

However the end of repair work Saturday has not put an end to the gas dispute.
Tbilisi Mayor Gygy Ugulva announced late Saturday that gas supplies to the Russian embassy and a subsidiary of Russian giant Gazprom, Gazexport, had been cut off.

Ugulva branded the two as "organisations that have been directly taking part in Georgia's energy blockade".

Gas supplies to the embassy were restored late Sunday after the Russian foreign ministry threatened tit-for-tat action against Georgia's embassy in Moscow.
But a Gazexport official, contacted by AFP, said company offices in Tbilisi were still without gas late Sunday.

Last week, Saakashvili declared that "Georgia will never be brought to its knees."
"The Georgian people have survived harder times and Georgia will again surprise Russia and the whole world," he said.

Tbilisi last week struck a gas supply deal with Iran. At the weekend the government said the agreement would go ahead, with first deliveries on Sunday or Monday.

But analysts say it will take years for Georgia to reduce significantly its heavy dependency on Russian energy.

Tensions between Georgia and Russia have grown since the 2003 "rose revolution" that brought Saakashvili to power, promising a new pro-Western course and renewed efforts to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

Russia accuses Georgia of allowing Chechen rebels to take refuge on its territory, while Tbilisi has for more than a decade accused Moscow of funding and arming separatist rebels who control two key Georgian provinces -- South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

AFP 01/29/06

Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved

 

 

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