Georgia, Russia in Talks on Additional Gas Supplies

Georgia has held talks with Gazprom on receiving additional natural gas from Russia, Georgia's energy ministry said on Tuesday, a move that has been criticised for potentially making the country more dependent on its former Soviet master.

Georgia imports most of its natural gas from Azerbaijan but also gets 10 percent of the gas transported across it by Russia to Armenia as a transit fee.

Azerbaijan supplied about 87.1 percent of Georgia's total consumption of 2.17 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2014.

Kakha Kaladze, Georgia's energy minister, said last week that additional gas volumes were needed because of increasing gas consumption in Georgia, which is expected to reach 2.5 bcm in 2015, a 27 percent increase from 2012.

Kaladze, a retired soccer player who played for Italy's Serie A club AC Milan, met with Alexei Miller, Gazprom's chief executive in Milan on Monday.

"During the working meeting the sides discussed extending existing agreement on transit service and other technical issues. Terms and conditions for supply of additional volumes of natural gas were also discussed," the Georgian Energy Ministry said in a statement.

It was the second meeting between Kaladze and Miller in a month.

Gazprom said that the transit of Russian gas through the Georgian territory and commercial supplies of (Russian gas to Georgia) were discussed.

Kaladze has emphasised the need to diversify gas supplies, while government opponents have said that Russia, with which Georgia fought a brief war in 2008, was not a reliable partner.

"Georgia will have to buy gas from Gazprom on top of what the country is already receiving from Russia as a transit fee, because there is no possibility to import additional volumes from Azerbaijan, which is and will remain the main supplier of gas to Georgia," Kaladze told reporters.

Opposition parties in Georgia condemn the government's plan to increase Russia's share in the country's gas imports.

"This intention is a traitorous step that would be a blow for country's energy security," Georgy Gabashvili, an opposition lawmaker, said.

(Reporting by Margarita Antidze)