Baku Hikes Price for Georgia
Azerbaijan’s state-run Socar increased prices for Georgian commercial and industrial customers by 10.5% to 95 tetri/1 m3 (36 cents at current rate), the company announced January 31. The new price takes effect March 1 and is the result of the weak lari compared with the dollar, in which Baku sells its gas.
Socar distributed 1.8bn m³ to retail customers in 2018, of which a fifth went to the residential sector, excluded from the price rise.
Socar Georgia Gas has been distributing gas for more than 10 years and has invested over $300mn in infrastructure. Last year, Azerbaijan delivered 2.5bn m3 to Georgia, part of which was delivered as 5% gas transit fee for Shah Deniz gas that was exported to Turkey (7.225bn m³ in total).