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I have not read the article. That was a marathon! I need a break

Western companies afraid to come to such projects and Frontera is not?

- First, neither large nor small companies like it when there is a conflict situation.

Secondly, this project is intelligence. You need to take risks and invest in intelligence. If the intelligence confirms that there is a commercial field, then we need to know what it is. Companies like us come to such projects.
Thirdly, in Ukraine, unfortunately, the system is not so transparent and easy for all companies to come and apply for participation in the competition. The complex of these problems also forces many to stay away.

- How to correctly understand the interest of eight congressmen in defending Frontera? Did you turn to them to speak in your support?

"No, but they know us well." They know very well what we do, who we are, what results we get. When we first came and started working in Azerbaijan, people there didn't have the money to go to the store to buy food, but look what is happening there now. These people have known us since then.

Now the same thing is starting in Georgia. In ten years you will come to Georgia and will not know this country at all. It will already be an independent country with its own oil and gas resources. And the same will happen in Ukraine.

- On the one hand, congressmen support Frontera, and on the other - during the week of your presence in Kiev, the US Ambassador to Ukraine did not meet with you. Moreover, they say, he distances himself from you. Why?

"I don't know, to be honest." I never tried to meet him. Anyway, I met with many officers from the economic department of the embassy. I was even pleasantly surprised at how friendly they were.
- Perhaps it is more correct to say that Frontera has local support in Texas, where most of your partners come from, and not in the United States?
- I do not know. I'm even somehow uncomfortable. I don't even know if it is real that someone in the embassy thinks positively or not positively. In all the countries where we have worked, all the embassies have always supported us, and we are very grateful to them.
- Have you met Vladimir Groysman? Was it possible to convey to him the position of your company on the "Dolphin"?

- No. The only time I met him was when he was visiting the United States. Then there was a meeting with business circles in Washington.

- How do you explain the Cabinet's critical attitude to Frontera?

- We understand very clearly why this attitude has developed. As soon as the authorities announced the competition, we were covered with lies in the press.

- Who are the customers of these messages?

- As far as I am told, these are our competitors.

- Ukrnefteburenie, Trident and Socar applied for the Dolphin.

"It wasn't Socar."

- The circle narrowed to two.

- At a certain stage, it seemed to us that this was the beginning of Ukrnefteburenie, and then Trident picked it up. It seems that now they are united.

- These companies have different goals.

Govyell, "Ukrnefteburenie" participated only to obtain the status of the subject of the competition, to have grounds to challenge it in court.

Trident probably participated in the competition to start developing "Dolphin". This project is the company's last chance: the $ 200 million it raised expires on December 1.

- Probably, but as far as I know, until the competition for "Dolphin" was announced, Trident did not even know about the existence of this project.

- "Dolphin" is located near the occupied Crimea and in case of hostilities falls into the conflict zone. Why are large Wes

or not, we will continue to work as a private company.

- Is it true that Frontera conducts stock exchange agreements every year, that is, attracts foreign money on an annual basis?
- No, it does not depend on the calendar year, but on the availability of the project.

- It is said that Frontera lives from project to project: it signs agreements with governments, its shares soar, it raises money, but in the end the project is not implemented, and then the cycle repeats itself.

- Let those who talk about it, name at least one example when we signed the agreement and our shares went up. This has never happened before.

By the way, in 1999 or 2000 we started drilling at one field in Georgia. The then President Shevardnadze arrived there. There was a ceremony, everyone was happy. Then someone wrote that Frontera brought the president, their shares rose and they "withdrew" a lot of money.

And we were not even listed on the stock exchange then. This is a fairy tale. No one will show that when we signed something, it affected the growth of our shares.

- In the relationship between the signing of the agreement and the growth of the value of shares, there is an assumption that Frontera is not working to extract gas, but to absorb the money of its external investors.

- Probably the most correct answer is that I personally invest my money in these projects. Invested a substantial amount.

- How much of your personal funds have been invested over the years?

- A lot. More than tens of millions of dollars.

- When Frontera lost the Dolphin competition, eight congressmen defended it. How to explain the disproportion between the modest results of Frontera and the great political support in the United States?

- This is not a disproportion. How can financial results be bad when only one field has been valued by international appraisers at $ 620 million?

And we have three or four more such deposits. In Georgia. These investments bring concrete results. Competitors want us to look very bad. What are the bad financial results? Show me another company that created the value we created.

For the first time in the history of Georgia, we have confirmed reserves of 350
350 billion cubic meters of gas. Of this volume, about 300 billion cubic meters are recoverable reserves. This has never happened in the history of Georgia. This is already a cost.

- What is the name of the company in Georgia that develops these four fields in the interests of Frontera Resources?

- Frontera Eastern Georgia.

- Frontera has more political weight than money. Why?

- Do you think there were no people in Georgia who wanted to hinder us? There were such things too. One way or another, this is now coming to life. Therefore, the tale that someone wants to paint us as a company with problems is all part of the strategy. I can provide you with all the assessments and reports.

- How to correctly understand the interest of eight congressmen in defending

that show the same reservoirs throughout this region.

- So you wanted to master both land and sea parts?
- For us, it does not matter where the political border is, where the sea is, and where the land is, because we are hunting for oil and gas deposits.

- When applying to the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine in 2017, your then application included the areas of the Odessa and Nameless offshore fields, which are now operated by Russia, which has occupied Crimea. How did you imagine working in this part of the territory?

- There are many examples in the oil and gas business when oil and gas exploration and production take place in such conflict areas.

- So you felt the strength to agree with the Russians?
- Of course, but I don't know, maybe "agreeing with the Russians" is the wrong phrase.

- Well, not in the sense of a bribe, but in an official way.

- We feel very confident that there are good preconditions for that. They justify our optimism that we will work there without questions.

- What are Frontera's investment plans for the Dolphin site?

"We plan to drill seven wells there in five years." One well will cost 15-20 million dollars.

- In addition to these costs, you will need to build a pipeline from wells to land with a length of about 130 km. How much more money is this?

- Another $ 250-300 million. However, it is too early to talk about the pipeline. It all depends on the capacity of the production area.

"Even without the cost of the pipeline, seven wells is $ 140 million. Where will Frontera get that much money?"

- We have a large and strong group of private investors who are interested in investing with us. We will raise money and invest in Dolphin.

- Distrust of Frontera on the part of the Ukrainian authorities and competitors is explained by the fact that this company is not known in the Ukrainian market. Let's try to refute the information that you have no money. Name one or two potential investors willing to give you money.
- Probably the best counterargument is what we have already invested. I have already said that we have invested $ 550 million in Georgia. Where did this money come from? We have invested about $ 450 million in Azerbaijan. Where did this money come from?

Everyone knows perfectly well how this money appears. If you have a good project, you can raise good money. This is what we have been doing and will continue to do. Money can be raised in the stock market, in the private capital market.
When we became a public company, Morgan Stanley listed us on the London Stock Exchange. This was then considered a very successful IPO. In addition to Morgan Stanley, we work with other banks, such as JP Morgan, Evercore, Jefferies.

- So these financial institutions are ready to give you money?

- Yes.

- Why did Frontera leave the London Stock Exchange in 2018?

"For one reason." We were undervalued on the stock market, so we decided to leave. When the market will evaluate us accor

- What I can say for sure: John is very interested in Ukraine's development, very much - in political and economic terms.

- In 2015, Frontera Resourses signed a memorandum of cooperation with Naftogaz. Was Herbst's contribution there?

"No, John has nothing to do with it." We signed the first documents in Ukraine in 2012. Stavitsky was also the head of the Ministry of Energy.

We have signed a protocol of intent and confidentiality with the State Geological Survey. The latter meant that we could not disseminate the geological and geophysical material transferred to us without the knowledge of the State Geological Survey.

- What assets belong to Frontera in the world?

- Our most active position is in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

In Gru

We produce oil and gas. Here is the geological corridor where we work (points to my computer screen). We see the same geological deposits. Since no company has such experience, we are the only company that operates in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

- What volumes of production does Frontera operate with?

- The maximum volume was about 10 thousand barrels per day (1.3 thousand tons. - EP).

- Is it true that Frontera produces about 2 thousand barrels per day?

- No, less. Up to two. In 2018, we extracted about 500 thousand barrels (about 70 thousand tons. - EP). It's not about how many barrels. The matter is for what period production is calculated. Will it stop in two months or in 20 years?

On our project in Azerbaijan, which we have already talked about, production is still going on. For us, the most important thing is not just to find oil and gas, but to find deposits from which you can extract commercially for as long as possible.

- Frontera is 22 years old. How much did she invest in production during that time?

- The company has been around for almost 25 years. More than $ 1.5 billion has been invested. This is not only in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Moldova. We had projects in Bolivia and Colombia. We almost signed a contract in Venezuela. Hugo Chavez came and it was over.

- The amount of gas produced during the existence of Frontera covered at least half of the amount of money invested by it, that is, at least $ 700 million?

- More than 700. Azerbaijan and Bolivia were profitable projects. In Georgia, we are still in the red: we have invested about $ 500 million and extracted $ 100-120 million. However, what we found there will cover the investment by orders of magnitude.

- What are the financial results of Frontera for 2018?

- About $ 1.2 million in profit.

- In 2017, Frontera negotiated with the Ministry of Energy on the
development of oil and gas areas. You applied for the development of two sites: one - on the land part of the Odessa region, the second - on the shelf of the Black Sea. Did you want to master two plots or which one will you give?

- We have studied all regional seismic lines in Moldova, which are not only on land but also at s

- No. We had two plots there in the southeast of Azerbaijan, 500 square kilometers, and several thousand square kilometers in the west of the country.

- Is it true that you took a loan from the EBRD for the development of these plots?
- Yes. This was the first time the EBRD had allocated $ 60 million for oil and gas operations.

(In 1998, Frontera Resources signed a contract for commercial oil production at Azerbaijan's Kursangi and Karabagly
fields. The agreement was preceded by an official visit by Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev to the United States. ).

- What are the results of production at these sites?
- When we took these deposits, there was zero production. After 1.5-2 years, production was already somewhere 8 thousand barrels (1 thousand tons. - EP) per day.

- What is the name of the company that produces hydrocarbons produced by you in the fields of Azerbaijan?

- Salyan Oil. We no longer own it. We sold it and left.

- For what reason did the EBRD sue the Stockholm Arbitration Court for a loan issued by Salyan Oil?

- The answer to this question will affect the Azerbaijani government.
- You can comment at your discretion.

- They were not satisfied with the behavior of the management of the state company Socar.

- Do you mean that Socar was a partner of Salian Oil in the EBRD-financed project, and the EBRD still has questions about this activity?
- Yes. They were scared and didn't want to do anything. By the way, after that all management in Socar changed.

- Has the EBRD sued both companies?
- No. In total, there is a not very attractive investment situation. This concludes my comment.

- The last question in this regard: how did the arbitration end?
- It ended up that Socar had to pay some losses. (According to EP sources, as a result of the conflict, the EBRD withdrew from this project).

- Since 2015, you have been a member of the Atlantic Board of Directors. Who invited you there?
- This is a very interesting organization, there are amazing people working there - very hardworking. For many years I was a member of this organization, I worked honestly with this organization and with these people. Over time, there was more and more cooperation, we began to work closely in many areas, on energy, political, geopolitical projects.

- Who invited you to the board of directors?

"It's hard to answer." The decision is made by a very large group of people. I talked to many people and at a certain moment I heard an offer from one, two, three and then accepted it.

"Is it true that John Herbst invited you to the Atlantic Council?"

- No. I met him at the Atlantic Council.
- Herbst is considered a very influential person in Ukraine.
- He is well versed in all the nuances - geopolitical, economic. He knows Ukraine, the American political and economic system very well. He has vast diplomatic experience.

- Does he advise American business in Ukraine?

- What I can say for sure: John is very

- In 2001, you headed the American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia. Was this the stage at which Shevardnadze also featured you?

- No. The new US Ambassador to Georgia, Kenneth Jalowitz, has arrived. He asked me to create this organization.

- What business in Georgia belonged to you then?

- At that time I was already in the oil and gas business, Frontera Resources occupied the largest part.

- Did something belong to you in Georgia itself?
- At that time in the region, in Georgia and Azerbaijan, were very active in the exploration and production of oil and gas.

- Is it true that you own 39% of Rusmetali?

"Yes, I forgot."

- Who was your main partner in this company?

- One of the local Georgian businessmen. I don't even want to mention him. I have lawsuits against him today. (According to EP sources, this is a businessman Mindie Mindeli).

Several years ago, the Georgian prosecutor's office accused Rusmetali of laundering 2.4 million GEL. What was it about?

- Sometime in 2009-2011, the CEO of this company (Timur Miminoshvili. - EP) issued 2.5 million GEL in cash - about $ 2 million. When he was asked questions, he replied: "I do not remember." This is where we stopped. These are all official documents in the prosecutor's office today.

- Was this the management of your business partner for this company?

- Management has conspired with one of the shareholders. They did it together.

- So they stole this money from the company?

- Yes, but not only these 2 million. There are more. When the investigation began, it turned out that tens of millions had been stolen there. Over time, this increases. There are some schemes. Some kind of horror is happening. The most important thing that the CEO conspired with the shareholder and they did so together.

- Since then, you have not increased your stake in Rusmetali?

- And so it remained. Although this case is in court, it smells like a crime, quite large, sooner or later we will decide on it too.

- In 2016, Frontera Resourses won a tender in Moldova for oil and gas production on an area of ??12 thousand sq km…

- (Interrupts) There was not 12 thousand square kilometers, but about seven with a small.

- 2.5 years have passed since then. What was done on this site?

- This is a very delicate question. I don't mind sharing this with you, but I don't want our competitors to hear it. We have been engaged in geology, geophysics, and data processing at this site for several years.

- That is, geological research. Drilling started?
- We have not drilled yet. We are now digitizing all geological material, analysis and processing. This is a huge material.

After we process all this, we will determine the part of these 7,000 square kilometers where we will do seismic surveys in 2D and 3D. Based on the results, we will drill new wells. Here is such a plan.

Zaza Mamulashvili meets with Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip

SOURCE: GOV.MD

- Does Frontera have a

- In 2001, you headed the American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia. Was this the stage at which Shevardnadze also featured you?

- No. The new US Ambassador to Georgia, Kenneth Jalowitz, has arrived. He asked me to create this organization.

To help the business raise that money. The initial contacts started with this.

- How did the idea to create Frontera come about?

- At one point, I exported Eastern European and Central Asian oil to Western markets. Bill White, representing President Clinton, drew attention to Eastern European countries.

Interest stopped in Azerbaijan, because in the sea, where a lot of oil and gas is now extracted, Azerbaijan was not given the opportunity to extract - it could not share the Caspian Sea with Iran and Russia.

Then the Clinton administration singled out Bill White to address this issue, and he decided it: Azerbaijan has started oil production in the Caspian Sea.

After that, the question arose how to export this oil. The development of the Baku-Supsa pipeline project, which could supply oil to international markets, has begun. This became an even bigger apple of discord - Russia was not interested in it. She wanted to take oil through Russian ports.

However, the pipeline was implemented and made Azerbaijan independent. Under Clinton, the US government took an active part in the negotiations.

I also actively participated in negotiations with the governments of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. In the end, the first line of the pipeline from Baku to Supsa was built, and then the second line appeared.

- How did you take part in these negotiations?

- As a negotiator between the three governments. I advised all these governments in the negotiations. The largest connecting part was Georgian. It connected Turkey on the one hand, and Azerbaijan on the other.

- At that time you already had influential ties in Georgia?

- I do not know how to determine the impact of communication.

- For example, were you identified by the then Prime Minister of Georgia?

- I then communicated at the level of the president. The President of Georgia was Eduard Shevardnadze. I talked to him directly, the project was developed at his level.

- Did he perceive you as a representative of the US government?

- No, I was a representative of private business, which was involved in this process in order to bring together the positions of the governments of these three countries and companies. They spoke different languages. This was something new for governments.

The contract stipulated that the managing operator of this pipeline would be the international consortium AIOC (Azerbaijan International Operating Company - EP), which included seven or eight companies. A few years later, BP became the main shareholder of this project.

- In the early 2000s, you were chairman of the board of directors of Trans Power Systems. Whose company is it and what did it do?

Then the Clinton administration singled out Bill White to address this issue, and he decided it: Azerbaijan has started oil production in the Caspian Sea.

After that, the question arose how to export this oil. The development of the Baku-Supsa pipeline project, which could supply oil to international markets, has begun. This became an even bigger apple of discord - Russia was not interested in it. She wanted to take oil through Russian ports.

However, the pipeline was implemented and made Azerbaijan independent. Under Clinton, the US government took an active part in the negotiations.

I also actively participated in negotiations with the governments of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. In the end, the first line of the pipeline from Baku to Supsa was built, and then the second line appeared.

- How did you take part in these negotiations?
- As a negotiator between the three governments. I advised all these governments in the negotiations. The largest connecting part was Georgian. It connected Turkey on the one hand, and Azerbaijan on the other.

- At that time you already had influential ties in Georgia?

- I do not know how to determine the impact of communication.

- For example, were you identified by the then Prime Minister of Georgia?

- I then communicated at the level of the president. The President of Georgia was Eduard Shevardnadze. I talked to him directly, the project was developed at his level.

- Did he perceive you as a representative of the US government?

- No, I was a representative of private business, which was involved in this process in order to bring together the positions of the governments of these three countries and companies. They spoke different languages. This was something new for governments.

The contract stipulated that the managing operator of this pipeline would be the international consortium AIOC (Azerbaijan International Operating Company - EP), which included seven or eight companies. A few years later, BP became the main shareholder of this project.

- In the early 2000s, you were chairman of the board of directors of Trans Power Systems. Whose company is it and what did it do?

- It was a state-owned Georgian company.

I came with the project to the state of Georgia. He proposed to separate a part of the power system into a separate structure, to connect it with the Azerbaijani and Turkish power systems, to use this channel as an independent branch for the export and import of electricity.

Today, this part of the energy system operates as an export line and belongs to Georgia.

- How did you end up at Trans Power Systems?

- The Georgian government asked me. This was the period when the prime ministers were Niko Lekishvili and Avtandil Jorbenadze.
- They were members of Shevardnadze's team. He invited you to this project.

- Yes. Under that structure, he made all the decisions. I did everything during those two years and left.

- In 2001, you headed the American C

American company, Frontera's chances are not very great.

Below is how Zaza Mamulashvili, a graduate of Tbilisi State Medical University, became an American businessman, the Georgian prosecutor's office's investigation into his company's management, lawsuits with the EBRD and a possible renaissance of hydrocarbon production in Ukraine.

- You are a native of Georgia. Who are you by education and what is your first position?

- I graduated from the Medical University in Georgia. He worked as a doctor for a couple of years and in 1989 went to study in the United States to continue his medical career.

These plans coincided with the period of the collapse of the USSR. Then everyone started looking for business contacts with the West. So I started to connect the two sides. This resulted in the fact that I began to communicate with business circles in the United States, which had an interest in the former Soviet Union. So I ended up in business.

- What was your first position or company where you worked?

- These were two trading companies. Metex exported steel and non-ferrous metals, MTA ltd imported oil from Russia and Kazakhstan to the United States. By the way, we also worked in Ukraine: with Krivorozhstal and Zaporozhstal.

- Who owned Metex and MTA?

- There were several private investors: me and several American partners. With them, we created this business 30 years ago.

- Who was your main business partner in the United States?
- These people were famous in business, then in politics, then we created Frontera together. For example, there were the US Treasury Secretary and the US Department of Energy.

- There were many heads of these ministries. Name the surnames.

"It's confidential." (According to EP sources, these are the former Minister of Finance, the late Lloyd Bentsen, the former Deputy Minister of Energy, Bill White, and the former Minister of Energy, Charles Duncan).

We started working together 30 years ago. This then resulted in Frontera Resources, where now my official partner is Dino Nicandros.

- How did these people become your partners? Did medicine unite you?

- No. Medicine has allowed me to open many doors in the United States.
On the one hand, I started doing business, on the other hand, I started raising money to invest in Georgian medicine. We created several programs, sent students. I knocked on many doors, to help the business raise that money. The initial contacts started with this.

- How did the idea to create Frontera come about?

- At one point, I exported Eastern European and Central Asian oil to Western markets. Bill White, representing President Clinton, drew attention to Eastern European countries.
Interest stopped in Azerbaijan, because in the sea, where a lot of oil and gas is now extracted, Azerbaijan was not given the opportunity to extract - it could not share the Caspian Sea with Iran and Russia.

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Frontera co-owner Zaza Mamulashvili: we understand why the Ukrainian government has been critical of us

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2019, 08:10 - DMITRY RYASNOY

Zaza Mamulashvili, a graduate of Tbilisi State Medical University, told the EP about his path to American business, the Georgian prosecutor's
office's investigation into his company's management, lawsuits with the EBRD and a possible renaissance of hydrocarbon production in Ukraine.

Translated from the Spanish frontera, it means "border", but the owners of the American company of the same name - Georgian Zaza Mamulashvili and Greek Dino Nikandros - do not seem to have it. This is directly evidenced by the portfolio of assets of Frontera Resources, scattered around the world, but more - the company's image.

This structure has long been a partner of international government agreements, and its owners - the experience of participating in the most influential forums on the planet such as the Atlantic Council (Atlantic Council), where speakers are often US presidents.

It would seem that in this scenario, Frontera Resourses' interest in developing one of Ukraine's most promising oil and gas fields, the Black Sea Dolphin Square, is a great success for the country. Optimism is besieged only by statistics.

For 25 years of work in the international arena, Frontera has not been able to rise from the bottom of the niche of participants in venture risk projects. As a result, the annual production of hydrocarbons by this company does not exceed 100 thousand tons, and financial results balance between losses and symbolic profit.

In general, what is the investment climate in the country, such are the investors. However, Frontera Resources insists that the company is already able to raise tens of millions of dollars in the development of "Dolphin".

Apparently, the desire to emphasize the financial viability of the American company was the main motivation of Zaza Mamulashvili in his decision to meet with EP. During the conversation, he did not miss the opportunity to express support for Frontera by international financial institutions.
However, the secret of the company's longevity may be different: according to EP sources, the origins of its creation are retired American politicians led by Deputy Chief of the US Treasury Department under Bill Clinton Bill White.

Democrat White has no place in the administration of Republican Donald Trump, but his position is still strong in the center of the United States oil and gas industry, where Frontera is headquartered in Texas.

That's enough for eight American congressmen to join Frontera Resources, which lost the competition for the Dolphin. According to EP sources, the other day they sent a corresponding official letter to President Vladimir Zelensky. However, judging by the fact that the US ambassador to Ukraine is distancing himself from the

Regulator sat round table watching sky news or a shorter who knows how to play the game.

Ck never mentioned 50m tests, seriously this is the best they had on him? Insider dealing or something going on.

"With regards yesterday’s RNS, I am afraid this wasn’t something that the company or our NOMAD wanted to issue, we were forced to by the AIM regulatory. We tried to push back but they were insistent" Colin King

You are kidding me, so many issues that have been discussed with Aim over the years, and this is the time they have to speak up. They had nothing else? This is very suspicious.

repeatedly appealed, and we disagree.
As for the publication of a 152-page document, it is difficult to do so, as this document contains a very large portion of commercial confidential information. It contains a lot of technical confidential information and personal information of different people. Therefore, before we can legally clean up all this so that the remaining document can be made public, it will take time. That's why we have repeatedly appealed to the corporation and the Ministry of Economy to make a joint statement, which we have repeatedly refused. "

Zaza Mamulaishvili on the activities and problems of "Frontera"

can be towards investors. ”

On April 29, the State Oil and Gas Agency and the Georgian Oil and Gas Agency

Sits Corporation" issued a statement terminating the contract with "Frontera" and sending a message to this company. The head of "Frontera" states that the company continues to work. As for the prospect:

Neither the decision of the arbitration nor the agreement of the" Oil and Gas Agency "has any right to terminate the agreement. We certainly continue to work. It is incomprehensible to us - if they are going to expropriate us and force us to stop investing in them, I will not be able to tell Maga today. It would be very foolish behavior. It will greatly damage the image of the country. I hope they don’t do that. However, they have neither the legal nor the contractual right to terminate the contract unilaterally. ”

Why didn't Frontera address the court itself when it first encountered difficulties with the state-owned company? Zaza Mamulaishvili's answer:
Because it is very important for a businessman to have a good image of the country, the company, the shareholders, the funds to be interested in working and investing in that country. If the country has a bad image abroad, the shareholders
will no longer be interested in coming to Georgia. So we were very careful about that. "
As for Frontera's response to the claim of large sums of money from the state:

"We voluntarily withdrew the $ 3.5 billion lawsuit a year ago and then tried to reach an agreement with them. Now the company is not asking for any money. "

What could be the reason for the complications described by the guest of "Morning Talks"? Who might be interested in this?

What should be the reason, if not the desire, that American companies were not here at all?" We have no information about the interest of a particular company / s, but we do not rule out that Rosneft, Gazprom or China's CNP, or SOCAR, would be happy to start doing so after the half-billion-dollar investment we have made. Without showing development. "

Zaza Mamulaishvili believes that Georgia has sufficient mineral resources for energy independence:
Georgia, which has its own resource of natural gas and will definitely achieve energy independence, because the potential is huge, occupies a completely different position economically and politically in the region. Azerbaijan has a huge political influence on Georgia because it supplies gas, and Russia, which supplies 10-20% of its annual consumption, has a huge political influence. If there is no need for this and it has its own resources, it will make Georgia energetically independent, richer and stronger economically. "

The Oil and Gas Corporation says it supports the release of the Stockholm Arbitration Award and expects a response from Frontera:
We support the publicity, but we have repeatedly offered the Georgian side, the Oil and Gas Corporation and the State Oil and Gas Agency, to make a joint statement on the arbitral
tribunal m

did not give us permission to build the pipeline, even though it was legally and by contract. After long communication, we were not allowed to speak until the members of Congress intervened and communicated with the state, the ministry, and the prime minister. Only then will we be allowed to build the pipeline. That was in 2014. Before that, we had been trying to reach an agreement for a year.

In 2014, as it turned out, we built a 16-kilometer gas pipeline. After that, we were no longer allowed to carry our own gas in the gas pipeline we had built. We were not given this license until we were contacted by Washington until members of Congress addressed the Prime Minister. It was a long, bureaucratic, completely unjustified refusal. Whatever the technical or commercial reasoning, the answer was simply "no" and we could not miss this "no" until communication from Washington with the Prime Minister of Georgia took place, and only then did it start from scratch.

Finally, for the first time in the history of Georgia, many customers across the country were provided with natural gas extracted in Georgia through the distribution network. This has reaffirmed that Georgia has great potential for natural gas extraction, distribution and use. "

Statements made by both the Georgian State Corporation and Frontera about the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration Court last month, in which both sides expressed satisfaction with the arbitral award. Zaza Mamulaishvili states in the "Morning Talks" that no one has won in such a dispute and explains the result of the arbitration as follows:

The statement of the Oil and Gas Corporation was irresponsible for them to win the dispute. Unfortunately, we all lost: the Oil and Gas Corporation lost, the government lost, the company lost, and Georgia lost.
This is because there is no profit in such a dispute. Georgia has appeared completely differently around the world as a country that aggressively treats the 23-year-old largest American investor in the country, and by the way, we are not the only ones to this day. So there is no winning side here. All were affected. We all lost.

As for the content, the government demanded that we violate the conditions and we should be fined more than 320 million GEL. This was unfounded and of course the arbitral tribunal did not grant this request. The authorities also demanded that this agreement be revoked for us, which was also denied by the arbitral tribunal.

What the state arbitration ruled was that we should pay the "Oil and Gas Corporation" about $ 200,000 in advance, which we have been doing for 23 years, and we do not care now that we pay them in advance, and secondly, the areas where oil and gas exploration and We do not carry out extraction work, return it to us for what we have already done, about 3-4 weeks ago.

In all of this, 42 million GEL has been paid to lawyers and experts, and the whole world has come to the conclusion that such an aggressive attitud

State Oil and Gas Corporation, could have covered our success more widely over the years. We thought that would be the case because the true partnership was just that.
For example, in 2004 we were the first company in the history of Georgia to capitalize on the stock market with one of the projects in Georgia, we did the listing for the first time and it was about $ 100 million back then. This amount was entirely spent on the Georgian investment project. With this, the international stock market of the world capital got acquainted with Georgia.
Then with this money we were very successful in drilling, seismic, research and very large inventories of oil and natural gas.
It was such a great success not only for the company, but also for the country, we thought our partner in Georgia was more positive.
We could do that too, and we talked about it all on the London Stock Exchange. As it turned out, it was not enough for the Georgian society to be better informed. "

Cooperation between Frontera and the Georgian government began with an agreement signed 23 years ago:
In 1997, we signed an agreement with the state to take the entire investment risk on ourselves to do the work, find and then extract oil and gas from these fields. The state has no capital investment obligation and most of the oil extracted, at half
More completely free of charge belongs to the state of Georgia. If all this fails, the whole risk of investing is ours.
Fortunately, our relationship developed very successfully. As a result of the $ 560 million investment, we have discovered 350 billion cubic meters of gas - this is in southeastern Georgia,
mainly in the Kakheti region, as well as one and a half billion barrels of oil, which has been confirmed not only by our staff and scientists. Most of these stocks belong to the state. Less than half of the extracted oil and gas is the share of Frontera.
Through this, the company must reimburse the invested investment and then see the profit.
The state has been profiting since the first day that Frontera started its work. We do $ 30-40 million a year.
Since 2013, our problems have reached completely new heights, it has become very difficult to actually work with the Oil and Gas Corporation, the Ministries of Economy and Energy. The work and investment environment in which we found ourselves was deteriorating every day and every year. ”
Asked by RFE / RL what the essence of the deteriorating relationship between Frontera and the state corporation was, Zaza Mamulaishvili said:

The main reason for this complication was that we were able to drill very successfully and then test the gas wells. As soon as we informed the Oil and Gas Corporation, the Ministry of Energy, we expected them to be happy, but this did not happen.

It was then that the most important complications began, that after this successful test, when we decided to connect one of these gas fields to the main pipeline, the state did not give us permission to

Unfortunately, we all lost: the Oil and Gas Corporation lost, the government lost, the company lost and Georgia lost."

ay 28, 2020

Nino Gelashvili

Zaza Mamulaishvili, co-founder and head of Frontera Rissors Corporation

Frontera is one of several companies sent by American politicians to Georgia or the United States in recent years, along with several other American companies, as an example of business harassment in Georgia. The same was true of the letter of May 15, 2020, whose authors, senators: Ted Cruz, John Cornyn, and Congressmen: Jodi
Arrington and Marquine Malin, address US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Finance Minister Stephen Mnuchin. In particular, in the letter you will read:

Over the past year, foreign direct investment in Georgia has fallen by almost 50% as taxes and bureaucratic barriers for Western businesses have increased.

These problems of good governance directly undermine the ability of American companies to work and strengthen our relationship with Georgia. They have invested more than $ 500 million in oil and gas exploration. Recently, Frontera has become a target of restrictive regulations and bans, and now the Georgian government is in danger of expropriation. In 2019, another American company, Conti Group, was expelled from the Anaklia Port Construction Consortium, which suspended the project.

The authors of the letter ask for information on how much it is:

The current Georgian government, led by the Georgian Dream, is trying to drive out those US businesses that are investing in Georgia's economy and future; such actions are motivated by geopolitical considerations, including Bidzina
Ivanishvili's alleged links to the Russian government; For critically important American interests, including: the premeditated expulsion of American companies from the port project is linked to Russia's protection of the current processes in Georgia.

Head of Frontera - "There is no winner in such a dispute"

Frontera Research also operates in several countries through subsidiaries. In Georgia, it is represented by several subsidiaries. These include Frontera Riverside Georgia Corporation, Frontera Rissors ULC and Frontera International Georgia. It is a fact that today the public interest in the company was aroused by the letters of American politicians and the lawsuit filed by the Georgian government in the Stockholm arbitration. Zaza Mamulaishvili, co-founder, president and CEO of Frontera Rivers, told RFE / RL:

"I would like the name 'Frontera' to be more widely known for the excellent results we have achieved by investing $ 560 million, and we have created this tremendous value for the country. This is partly probably our fault because we have always thought that we are not producing advertising products because we are looking for and extracting oil and gas. Therefore, we thought that it would not be appropriate to be overly informed about our activities, as our partner, the State Oil and Gas Corp

Sorry cant seem to post link. (radiotavisupleba)

https://www.radiotavisupleba.ge/a/zaza-mamulaishvili-pront’eras-sakmianobasa-da-sakhelmts’ipostan-davaze/30639322.html