Page 42 - GEORptNov18

9.0 Industry & Sectors 9.1 Sector news
9.1.1 Oil & gas sector news
Russia intends to commence supplying electricity to Iran from 2019 as part of the upcoming“North-South Energy Corridor", according to Moscow’s energy ministry. Iran’s power grid will most probably be connected to Russia via Azerbaijan as part of a broader integration of electricity supplies across the South Caucasus region. However, there are other supply options running via Georgia and Armenia that may be further explored. Iran suffers from power shortages during its long hot summer, when usage of air conditioning skyrockets. "Following a meeting with Russia’s Deputy Minister of Energy Anatoly Yanovski in Moscow, [Russian and Iranian officials] agreed that interested companies should presently deliver their proposals for electricity trade within the integrated power grid of the three countries and consider the possibility of trial-based electricity supplies to Iran next year," the energy ministry said in a statement.
Azerbaijan’s power grid is partially connected to Iran’s, while it is fully integrated with the Russian grid. Iran and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding in 2015 to begin the proces of moving ahead with the power supply project.
Oil and oil-related shipments from Georgia’s Black Sea port of Batumi fell by 45.3% y/y to 815,776 tonnes in January-August 2018, an official at the KazMunaiGas-operated terminal told Reuters on September 10.
The highest throughput of the oil terminal in Batumi constitutes 15mn tonnes a year. By 2015, the seaport’s turnover had significantly increased and Batumi became the largest transit destination for transporting Kazakh and Azerbaijani oil and oil products.
Some crude oil has been re-routed to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium this year, an official quoted by the news agency added, while some fuel oil has been sent to the port of Taman in Russia and Georgia’s other Black Sea port of Kulevi.
The fall is partly due to Azerbaijan preferring to send its oil through the pipeline or by rail in Georgia via its own terminal in Kulevi, rather than in Batumi, which is operated by the Kazakhs.
9.1.2 Automotive sector news
Khazar, an Iranian-Azerbaijani car assembler based in Azerbaijan’s Neftchala region is preparing to export to Russia and Georgia, Islamic Republic News Agency reported on October 20. The brand is the result of a joint venture between Iran Khodro Corporation (IKCO) and Azermash, an Azerbaijani state-owned automaker. The enterprise produces the IKCO Dena+ model, released in 2016 and based on the Peugeot 405 platform from the 1980s. Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Economy Niyazi Safarov announced in Baku that the long-discussed joint venture was moving ahead in line with original plans. “The two markets [of Russia and Georgia] are being explored by Azermash representatives, and studies are being done to see the
42 GEORGIA Country Report November 2018 www.intellinews.com