Infrastructure

Located at the crossroads of Europe and Central Asia, Georgia is a bridge connecting several important economic regions with a total of 827 million people, including the EU 495 (million), CIS (243 million), Turkey (73 million), and the Caucasus Region (16 million). It is a key link in the shortest transit route between Western Europe and Central Asia for transportation of oil and gas as well as dry cargo.

In order to further exploit the full potential of the Georgia’s strategic location and encourage foreign investment in the sector, the Government of Georgia, in cooperation with private enterprises, continues to develop transport infrastructure – roads, railways, sea ports, and airports, while simplifying customs and other administrative procedures including licensing reforms.

Due to these radical reforms, in the first half of the year 2008, the largest share of the FDI came on Transport and Telecommunications sector, equaling to $270, 6 million, around 28,3% of the total FDI inflow.

The Government of Georgia intends to retain an international investment bank to advise on the structuring and tendering-out of the Main Road Network. Comprising all the major routes crossing the country from East to West, the Main Road Network consists of:

The Government of Georgia wishes to enter into a long-term concession with a reputable investor (or a consortium thereof) for the operation, upkeep and built out completion of the Main Road Network

The Main Road Network and Alternative Roads

• The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, completed in 2005 at a total construction cost of nearly $4 billion and fully operational in 2006, can transport up to a million barrels of oil a day from the Sangachal terminal in Azerbaijan to a newly constructed marine terminal in Ceyhan on the Turkish Mediterranean coast. One of the longest pipelines in the world at a length of 1,768km (of this 249km through Georgia), the BTC pipeline transported the total of 212,163,359.5 barrels of oil in 2007.
• The Western Route Export Pipeline (WREP), also known as the Baku-Supsa pipeline, transports oil from the Chirag field in the Caspian Sea via the Sangachal terminal in Azerbaijan to the Supsa terminal in western Georgia with just under half of the pipeline located in Georgia. At a length of 830km, WREP, which became fully operational in 1999, is capable of transporting up to 155,000 barrels of oil a day.

• The South Caucasus gas Pipeline (SCP), completed in 2006 in the same corridor of land as the BTC pipeline, carries natural gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea to customers in Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan. At full capacity, the 692km South Caucasus Pipeline will export up to 20 billion cubic meters of gas a year. The gas supplied through SCP represents a source of future energy security and supply diversity for Georgia. SCP brings benefits of gas ‘in kind’ in lieu of tariff.

Batumi (depth 12 meters) Batumi carried 14.2 million tons in 2005. It is estimated to carry 17.5 million tons by 2010 and 33.8 million tons by 2015. Batumi is both an oil terminal and seaport. The annual capacity of Batumi Port is 18 million tons for oil and 2.3 million tons for dry cargo per year. Batumi Port is managed by Green Oak Group of Denmark, who won bidding for a 49-year management contract of the Port. Batumi’s new airport, opened in 2007, has a runway of 2,420 meters.

Kulevi - This is a new oil terminal completed in 2007, a former military port in the Kolkheti National Park, near Poti, privately funded and supported by the World Bank. It consists of 16 tanks with a capacity of 22,000 cubic meters, each serviced by a railway that could support up to 10 million tons of oil in phase 1 and up to 35 million tons in phase 2. 

f. Electricity Transmission

The current export capacity to Turkey is only about 700 GWh annually, and it is already fully utilized. The export capacities to other neighboring countries are much higher, at 10 TWh for Russia, 2.2 TWh for Azerbaijan and 1 TWh for Armenia.