George Bakhtadze, the General Director of Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation (GOGC) and Mikheil Shalamberidze, the General Director of Georgian Gas Transportation Company (GGTC) hosted the newly appointed Director of the Energy Community Secretariat, Artur Lorkowski during his working visit in Georgia.

The main goal of the working meeting was to discuss the current issues within the framework of harmonization of the Georgian energy legislation with the EU legislation. Among other issues, the main focus was made on the so-called unbundling and Gas Exchange development process. The parties discussed the works required for alignment of the Georgian legislation with the EU standards and assessed efficiency of the steps taken in this direction.

Artur Lorkowski, together with the Deputy Director, Dirk Buschle and the representative of the Secretariat, Svetlana Karpishina, became familiarized with the principle of work of the GOGC and GGTC. Representatives of GOGC delivered a presentation covering the activities and future plans of these two companies to the audience.

At the presentation, operation of 230 MW Gardabani and 250 MW Gardabani 2 TPPs and their efficiency were reviewed in detail. Regarding the current projects, among other issues, the underground gas storage and construction of Gardabani 3 TPP were discussed.

Special attention was paid to overview of the natural gas market in Georgia. The parties discussed the perspectives of the Gas Exchange and the action plan for its development. The visitors also showed interest in important issues and needs on the agenda of GOGC.

The Energy Community is an international organization which brings together the European Union and its neighbors to create an integrated pan-European energy market. The organization was founded in October 2005 in Athens, Greece. The key objective of the Energy Community is to extend the EU internal energy market rules and principles to countries in South-East Europe. The mission of the Energy Community is to establish a stable regulatory and market framework capable of attracting investment, create an integrated energy market, develop competition at regional level, improve the environmental situation in relation with energy supply in the region, foster the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency, enhance the security of supply to ensure stable and continuous energy supply. Georgia joined the Energy Community on July 1, 2017.

Artur Lorkowski has scheduled meetings with various agencies within the framework of his visit to Georgia.