A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Gazprom’s Management Committee Chairman and Zurab Zhvania, Prime Minister of the Republic of Georgia, was held yesterday at Gazprom’s Headquarters.

The meeting considered gas deliveries to Georgia, current gas payments, prospects of Gazprom’s participation in selling gas throughout Georgia and in implementing projects on the Georgian gas transmission system development.

Alexey Miller and Zurab Zhvania fixed the deadline for Georgia to repay its debt to Gazprom for the gas supplied. The payment timetable will be coordinated shortly, within the Georgian Fuel and Energy Minister’s visit to Moscow.

The parties discussed the implementation of the Agreement on strategic cooperation in the gas industry and agreed to keep on working in all the directions set earlier.

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Georgia does not produce gas, which is mainly imported from Central Asia. Natural gas share in the Georgian energy balance averages 24%. In 2003, Georgia received some 1,009 million cubic meters of gas, including 257 million cubic meters supplied by Gazexport and 752 million cubic meters, by ITERA.

In 2004, Georgia is planned to receive some 1 bcm of gas to be delivered solely by Gazexport, a 100% Gazprom subsidiary.

In July 2003, Gazprom and the Georgian Government signed a 25-year Agreement on strategic cooperation in the gas industry. The Paper outlines main directions of cooperation: natural gas deliveries to Georgia and joint participation in gas marketing to Republican end-use consumers; operation, rehabilitation, upgrading and development of the Georgian gas pipeline system; gas deliveries to Georgian power plants, power generation and its joint marketing.

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