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unbundling of the railway infrastructure and transport functions, Kobulia added. As part of the railway transport system restructuring, the government wants to encourage more involvement of private railway operators, while the infrastructure management company would operate separately.
Georgia has to restructure its railway transport and electricity systems under the EU-Georgia Association Agreement. It must also implement EU directives on railway transport, which require the infrastructure segment to be segregated by 2022.
Similar restructuring plans are envisaged for the Georgian electricity distribution. Under the Association Agreement and the Energy Community Treaty, Georgia has to implement the Third Energy Package into its national legal framework.
"We need to increase the efficiency of these companies in order to privatise them," said Kobulia in relation to Georgian Railway and State Electrosystem. According to Kobulia, the plan is to eventually privatise State Electrosystem. Its selloff was suspended in 2011 in the face of "challenges" on the market.
9.2 Major corporate news 9.2.1 Oil & gas corporate news
Azerbaijan has moved further into securing more value from its huge gas resources with the launch of the country’s first urea plant by the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR).
Production at the €800mn installation in Sumqayit Industrial Zone outside Baku began on January 16, according to officials. Around 70% of the plant’s urea (aka carbamide) production is likely to be exported to Turkey, Georgia and other Black Sea markets and Mediterranean markets. The remainder is to be sold on the domestic market, saving Azerbaijan around $90mn on urea imports. The production targets are 1,200 tonnes per day of ammonia and 2,000 tonnes per day of granular urea. Around 435mn cubic metres of natural gas as raw material is to be consumed.
Urea is usually used as a nitrogen-release fertilizer.
Construction of the plant begans as long ago as 2011. There were several project realisation delays.
Samsung Engineering Co. won an international open tender to provide engineering, procurement, construction and pre-commissioning services for the facility.
Azerbaijan is directing gas into several petrochemcial projects, with a couple of units already open at Sumqayit.
9.2.2 Transport corporate news
Gebruder Weiss transport and logistics company has opened a €2.5mn logistics terminal in Tbilisi, Georgia Today reported. The move brings the company’s investments in Georgia since 2012 to €15.5mn.
The new terminal comprises of an additional 2,300 square metres of handling, 7,800 sqm of paved open space and 300 sqm of office space. The entire location covers an area of 90,000 sqm. The construction works took six months to complete.
At a press conference held prior to the opening ceremony, Gebruder Weiss CEO Wolfram Senger-Weiss, director and regional manager Black Sea/CIS Thomas Moser and Alexander Kharlamov, country manager Georgia, briefed
43 GEORGIA Country Report May 2019 www.intellinews.com