TBILISI, January 30 (RIA Novosti, Marina Kvaratskhelia) - Georgia went some way to easing its energy crisis Monday, when the fuel and energy minister said that the country was importing natural gas from three countries for the first time in over three decades.
"For the first time in the last 35 years, Georgia is receiving gas from three sources simultaneously: Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran," said Nika Gilauri, though he added that the situation would last only a month.
Georgia usually imports natural gas from Russia alone, but supplies were disrupted on January 22, when explosions wrecked a pipeline in the southern Russian republic of North Ossetia, an incident, which the Georgian leadership was quick to accuse its big neighbor of orchestrating. Both the Russian authorities and Gazprom, the country's energy giant, dismissed the charges, but ill feeling continues to mar bilateral relations.
As a consequence, Georgia turned to Armenia and fellow Caspian Sea state Iran, which agreed to supply natural gas at $120 per 1,000 cubic meters, $10 more expensive than Russian gas.
Gilauri said Iranian gas had crossed the border of Azerbaijan, the Caucasus republic neighboring Georgia and Iran, on Monday and that the country would import 2 million cu m of Iranian natural gas a day.
However, the minister indicated that the operations represented a short-term measure to deal with a crisis enveloping the country as the temperature battles with unusually low temperatures of around -20° Celsius (-4 ° Fahrenheit).
"We will be receiving gas from those three suppliers for about a month," he said. "After that we will give up gas imports from Iran, although with a view of resuming them in the long term later."
Supplies from Azerbaijan will be halted as well, but will resume when a new pipeline from the country's Shakh Deniz gas field has been built, according to the minister. The pipeline is scheduled to be completed in late 2006 or early 2007.
The energy crisis in Georgia escalated Thursday, when a major power failure in the early hours of the day the capital, Tbilisi, and much of the east of the country without electricity.
Energy issues dominated a telephone conversation between Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and U.S. State Secretary Condoleezza Rice Sunday evening, according to the former's press office.
Rice said the energy crisis in Georgia had been in the focus of the State Department's attention over the last few several days and gave assurances that the United States, a close ally, was ready to help Georgia ensure its energy security, the press office said Monday.
