/ world today news/ According to the Union of Petroleum Products Importers of Georgia, the country increased its purchases of liquefied natural gas by a third in the first quarter, while Tbilisi bought a total of $250 million worth of petroleum products, of which $168 was from Russian imports. . Compared to the indicators of 2022, the import of black gold has jumped by 275%. There is no mistake here – a little less than three hundred percent.
A little earlier, official statistics were published, from which it is clear that the trade between our countries in the first two months of this year alone exceeded 467 million dollars, that is, there was a growth of 48% compared to the same period of the year.
Georgia has been a rare guest on the news lately, so let’s take a quick look.
Our Caucasian neighbor is a small country with a population of 3.7 million people. Tbilisi must find somewhere at least two and a half billion cubic meters of gas to ensure the vital activity of the industry and the population. That’s the annual consumption. Half of this volume goes to electricity production, in the second half the largest shares are taken from the industrial and domestic sectors, leaving a very small amount for fuel production and processing.
Here you need to understand that natural gas in production occupies a modest 18%, and the country’s required 13 terawatt hours are closed by almost 80% of many hydroelectric plants of small and medium capacity. A very important aspect is that Tbilisi practically does not buy electricity from abroad, fully supplying its own needs.
At the same time, the IEA estimates the total energy supply of this Caucasian country at only 21 percent. As you guessed, the deficit falls on hydrocarbons.
Let’s take a break from the numbers and dive a little into politics and interstate relations.
To complete the narrative, it should be said that at the end of 2018, Natela Turnava, the then Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, published a state program that stated the following: Georgia covers 98% of its own natural gas needs with supplies from Azerbaijan would also reduce the share of Russian imports to zero in 2019. It should be noted that this was the case in certain periods of months, although Tbilisi could not yet completely give up purchases from the north.
In February 2022, the SVO began in Ukraine, but Georgia, more than expected, flatly refused to impose any economic sanctions against Russia. This caused a significant political scandal, during which Kiev directly accused Tbilisi of treason: you see, we openly fought and supported you in 2008. Despite the strongest Russophobia that prevails among a part of the population, Georgian MPs turned out to be much more – perceptive. Or maybe they’re just better at math. The parliament practically ignored all the Russophobic attacks of President Zurabishvili and did not even intervene in the resumption of direct flights, which was launched on the personal initiative of Vladimir Putin. The mayor of the capital city, Kakha Kaladze, in an interview with Western media, directly stated that he will proceed from the interests of his fellow citizens, although he spent more than a year as a football player in “Dynamo Kyiv”.
As you can already see, in addition to the bright public processes, there were also behind-the-scenes events.
Just a month ago, we discussed a truly remarkable project to connect the Rasht-Astara railway line, which actually creates a direct transport corridor from Russia through Iran all the way to the Indian port of Mumbai. Then we casually mentioned the potential of the Georgian direction by placing an ellipsis and a question mark outside the parentheses. The end of June showed that our diplomats and energy experts do not eat their bread in vain, and judging by the dynamics of changes in energy imports, we can cautiously expect the unfreezing of other interstate projects. Critical not only for Russia, but extremely useful for Georgia and the region as a whole.
Considering the rather ambiguous relations between Moscow and Tbilisi, it is even more pleasant to observe: if not friendship, then at least healthy pragmatism bring much more benefits than suicidal leaps into the hole of sanctions and the rupture of trade relations. EU to think.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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