Zurab Nogaideli said that at the end of this week, Azerbaijan will start supplying gas from its Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea to Georgia.
Georgia, which has until now received most of its natural gas from Russia, initiated talks with neighboring Azerbaijan and Turkey to find alternative sources of gas, after Russian energy giant Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] said it would double the current gas price for Tbilisi to $230 per 1,000 cubic meters as of 2007.
"At the initial stage Georgia will be receiving 250 million cubic meters of natural gas [from the Shah Deniz field] at reduced price," the Georgian premier said.
Nogaideli also said that President Mikheil Saakashvili was currently in Turkey, negotiating extra gas supplies to his country by receiving a part of Turkey's quota for natural gas pumped via the South Caucasus (Baku-Tblisi-Erzerum) pipeline from the Shah Deniz deposit.
"We are completing talks on gas supplies, and the president is currently settling technical issues in Turkey," the prime minister said.
Turkey's energy minister agreed earlier in the month to transfer part of his country's quota of 3 billion cubic meters of gas produced at the Shah Deniz field to Georgia and Azerbaijan. Georgia hopes to receive 800 million cubic meters of natural gas from this quota, to avoid winter energy shortages.
