Page 47 - GEORptSep20

shares if they fail to obtain the consent of the Georgian Energy and Water Regulatory Commission in accordance with the rules established by the Law of Georgia on Energy and Water Supply.
9.0​ Industry & Sectors 9.1 ​Sector news
9.1.1 ​Oil & gas sector news
Azerbaijan’s oil exports via BTC pipeline decline 11% in first seven months
Former employees of Texas oil company Fronterna hold Georgia wages rally
Azerbaijani oil exports via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline that runs through Georgia and Turkey declined by 11% y/y in the first seven months of this year to 16.745mn tonnes, according to Azerbaijan’s State Statistics Committee.
Total oil exports from Azerbaijan in the period amounted to 20.997mn tonnes. Around 80% of that total went through the BTC. Azerbaijan's oil exports through the pipeline decreased by 8% in 2019 to 31.135mn tonnes.
The BTC pipeline exports oil from the Azeri,
Chirag and Guneshli (ACG) oilfields operated by BP.
The volume of transit oil—crude originating in Kazakhstan—through the BTC fell to 2.418mn tonnes in January to July from 2.727mn tonnes in the same period a year earlier.
Azerbaijan also exports oil via Russia through the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline and via Georgia by rail and through the Baku-Supsa pipeline.
Turkmenistan also historically exported some crude via the BTC. However, it switched its flows to a Russian port in 2019.
Former employees of Texas-based oil company Frontera Resources have held another rally in Dedoplistskaro, Georgia, to demand unpaid wages. They say the debt amounts to Georgian lari (GEL) 1mn (€330,000). The employees appealed to the court for the remuneration, saying they were fired by management without explanation.
"We have not been paid our salaries, and the court dispute is sluggish. Today we can say we gave the company the opportunity to export raw materials, however, they are still not going to satisfy our demand," said one of the protesters.
Georgia this year terminated its contract with Frontera that provided the company with exploration and production rights over a large part of the country’s territory in 1997. The government gave the company a second chance to continue operations on a small part of the initially awarded territory, namely in areas where operations have been carried out since during the Soviet era.
However, Frontera turned down the call for an amicable settlement of the contract row, accusing Georgian authorities of spreading disinformation “after years of threats and harassment”.
An international arbitration to settle the dispute ended with both parties claiming it had gone in their favour. The Georgian government then asked Frontera to agree to publicly disclose the ruling, but Frontera asked for more time to take out commercially sensitive parts of the document before publishing it.
47​ GEORGIA Country Report ​September 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com