Azerbaijan offers $500 million for North-South pipeline but Georgia won’t sell it

Azerbaijan is ready to offer $500 million for the North-South gas pipeline that carries Russian gas to Armenia via Georgia, President of the Azerbaijani Center for Economic and Social Development Vugar Bayramov was reported as saying.

According to Azerbaijani news website Aze.az Bayramov has however said that it is difficult at this moment to speak about the real sum.

In 2006 Russian main gas exporter Gazprom offered $250 million for the pipeline, though Georgia asked $1 billion. According to Mr Bayramov Georgia wants to sell it at a highest price, but the $1 billion price is far more than the pipeline really is worth paying.

According to Russian news agency Regnum Georgia’s Energy Minister Alexander Khetaguri said on August 20 that the Georgian government is not going to sell the pipeline.

Earlier head of the Azerbaijani State Oil Company (SOCAR) Rovnag Abdullaev said that Azerbaijan wants to buy all the oil and gas pipelines Georgia has.