| Georgia pays Iran twice as much for gas as Russia Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Mohammad Hadi Nejad Hosseinian revealed one of the main trade secrets of the Georgian government in recent days. As the official told the Islamic Republic of Iran news agency IRNA, according to the short-term contract, Tbilisi will receive 30 million cubic meters of gas within 30 days. For this volume, Tehran received an advance payment of $7 million, which means that 1 thousand cubic meters of gas, “alternative to Russian,” cost Georgia $230.
This information makes clear the political motivation for diversifying gas sources, which the Georgian leadership has adopted. Blaming the Russian Gazprom for all mortal sins, which raised the price for Tbilisi to $110 per thousand cubic meters from January 1, the government of Mikheil Saakashvili dared to pay twice as much for independence from the Russian supplier. Nevertheless, the Iranian official allowed himself to call the price of Iranian gas “preferential”, taking into account the speed of concluding the contract and the crisis situation in Georgia, which was left without gas for a week due to terrorist attacks on the Russian pipeline.
Buying gas from Tehran, which is now “enemy number one” for the United States, and for a fabulous sum at that, looks extremely dubious from a political point of view. The payment can be considered to have been made from funds that Washington allocates to Tbilisi as financial assistance, since Georgia has no other sources of eliminating the budget deficit. As is known, in 2006, over $80 million will flow from the American budget into the Georgian treasury.
Georgian politicians, who just a few days ago assessed the signing of an agreement with Iran as nothing more than a guarantee of independence from Russia, now avoid commenting on this topic in every possible way. In an interview with the Georgian newspaper Kviris Palitra, the head of the Georgian Ministry of Fuel and Energy Nikolai Gilauri, who led the negotiations in Tehran, said that the Iranian side was very constructive in this force majeure situation. “If we had not started negotiating cooperation with Iran last summer, we would not have been able to so quickly resolve the issue of obtaining natural gas from this country,” he said. According to the official, “Russia is not a reliable partner, so we will try to ensure that in the future Azerbaijan is the main gas supplier to Georgia.”
The Georgian authorities have so far carefully concealed the cost of Iranian gas. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili only said that the price was “acceptable.” From unofficial sources, the Georgian press reported that Tehran supplies Tbilisi with raw materials for $120. However, the Georgian government denied this. In addition, Tbilisi argued that payment may not be made immediately and using a barter scheme (with electricity and closer to summer). However, it is now obvious that the Georgian authorities were simply trying to keep a good face on a bad game. Yesterday, on the sidelines of a government meeting, journalists asked the Minister of Fuel and Energy several times about reports about the price of Iranian gas. He replied: “I don’t comment.”
Former Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili recently said that she hopes for Washington’s support in this matter: “We must quietly look for alternative sources of energy supplies, and we can use Iran’s resources. The United States must understand us and not be overly demanding on this issue - we need to exist. We cannot abandon both Russia and Iran.” However, it is obvious that those overseas will not be delighted with the idea that their money (even if not very large) went to the benefit of a hostile regime.
In addition, Iran was unable to provide additional gas supplies through Azerbaijan to Georgia. Since the northern part of the country has almost no own resources, and even for its own needs, Tehran purchases about 8 billion cubic meters per year from Turkmenistan at $44 per thousand cubic meters. It is characteristic that at the beginning of the week the presidents of Turkmenistan and Iran, Saparmurat Niyazov and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had a telephone conversation. According to Vremya Novostey, the Iranian leader asked to increase gas supplies in the winter. Most likely, Georgia will receive some Turkmen gas, and Iran will benefit from the deal. Mikhail VIGNANSKY, Tbilisi, Arkady DUBNOV, Alexey GRIVACHS |
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