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Posted by Looed on the 21st January :-

Georgian politicians and experts continue to discuss the contents of the letter of Marcwein Mullin to the Georgian Prime Minister Georgy Gakharia. The politician’s message expressed concern about Georgia’s departure from democracy and the pursuit of American business interests in Georgia. As an example, the American company Frontera is named.
This is not the first “Georgian” initiative of this American politician. In April last year, a Republican introduced a bill to the House of Representatives of the US Congress that received the working title, the 2019 Sanctions Act on Good Business Practices of Georgia.
The current message is directly addressed to the Georgian government. “As a member of the House and Energy Committee on Energy and Trade, I sent this letter to the Prime Minister of Georgia, where I expressed my concern about the worsening economic climate for US energy companies,” Markwane Mullin wrote on Twitter on January 19.
The message goes on to say:
“... I join the recent letter from my colleagues Adam Kinsinger and Gary Connolly in Congress, expressing concern about the decision of the [Georgian Dream] to abandon the promised democratic reforms. [...] in recent years there has been a steady negative trend of deterioration in indicators of a democratic and free market economy, ”the congressman writes and reinforces his arguments with a concrete example:
“The result is a reduction in foreign direct investment in Georgia, an excellent example of which is the oil and gas company Frontera Resources from Texas,” the letter emphasized.
In opposition, the mention of the company was ignored. One of the leaders of the "National Movement" Grigol Vashadze said that in fact the letter contains a sharp form of warning to the "Georgian Dream".
“Since the end of last year, editorials from leading publications in Washington and New York have been full of criticism of a group that calls itself the Georgian government. It’s time for these people to realize that Georgia has moved away from the path of development, dotted with tears, blood, sweat, finances and the political will of our strategic partners. ”
The head of "Democratic Georgia" Nino Burjanadze says that the "Georgian Dream" has lost the support of its Western partners:
“The West has included a countdown for the Georgian Dream.” It’s not about direct interference in the displacement of power, but about the fact that the democratic demands of the opposition will find support in the West. ”
In turn, the authorities believe that the American congressman is the lobbyist of the American company Frontera:
“It is no secret that lobbying in the USA is absolutely legal and transparent. This politician receives money for supporting the interests of the company. I think it’s not very ethical to use political influence for the interests of a virtually bankrupt company, ”concluded Andria Gvidiani.

Source:- https://www.ekhokavkaza.com/a/30387715.html

Georgian Parliament Speaker Archil Talakvadze has responded to a recent open letter published by US Congressman Markwayne Mullin on ‘the deteriorating economic climate’ in Georgia, by saying that Georgia listens to the official statements of the US government.
Top officials of the US State Department and our American partners say that Georgia has irreversible progress in terms of development of democratic institutions and human rights and that Georgia is one of the most reliable partners of the US in the security field,” Talakvadze said.
He stated that the congressman’s letter mainly concerns the international dispute between Georgia and an American company Frontera, which drills for oil and gas in Eastern Georgia per a contract signed with the Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation back in 1997.
Georgia will protect its interests in the dispute [in the Hague Court of Arbitration],” Talakvadze said.
Vice Parliament Speaker Giorgi Volski says that the letter is “biased.”
As far as I know about 200 American companies are registered in Georgia and none of them have been attacked so far,” Volski said.
Independent MP Beka Natsvlishvili [who previously was a member of the ruling Georgian Dream party] says that the congressman “allowed himself to protect the interests of the company [Frontera] which has violated the fundamental human rights of Georgian citizens.”
Mullin said, despite Georgia's progress since declaring its independence in 1991, "recent years have revealed a continuous negative trend in democratic and free market economic indicators." Photo: Flickr.
The employees of Frontera in Georgia [referring to Frontera Eastern Georgia company] have not received salaries in 11 months,” Natsvlishvili said.
Leader of the Lelo for Georgia political party Mamuka Khazaradze has called the letter “alarming,” saying that such statements by foreign partners “place Georgia-US cooperation under a question mark.”
Leader of the European Georgia opposition party Sergi Kapanadze has stated that such letters “must make the Georgian government wake up.”
Kapanadze says that both American and European partners are “concerned” by the situation in the country and the actions of the current Georgian government.
Mullin, who is a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, has sent a letter to Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia with concerns about the "deteriorating economic climate" for foreign direct investment (FDI), in particular for US energy companies in the country, citing Frontera.
The government of Georgia and American company Frontera have sued each other for “violating contract conditions,” which are confidential.
Frontera says that it has suffered $3.5 billion in damage in Georgia.
Frontera, which was founded in the US in 1996, entered Georgia in 1997 and founded Frontera Eastern Georgia.
The Georgian OIl and Gas Corporation owns 50 per cent of Frontera Eastern Georgia.

Source - https://agenda.ge/en/news/2020/172

Posted by Looed on the 20th January :-

“This is not the first or last such story. Indeed, in other countries there were situations when someone came there and “discovered” some field, and as a result, the story turned out to be empty investments, ”Perov summarizes.
The Georgians were so keen to have their own gas reserves that they believed the statements of Frontera Resources, because of which considerable money was invested in the activities of this structure, but this project ended with proceedings in international arbitration.

This is not the first such situation in the post-Soviet space

Despite the fact that the USSR had very good geological exploration, the post-Soviet states constantly declare that huge reserves of oil and gas have been found in these countries. The most striking example is Turkmenistan, which declared itself the largest country in the world in terms of gas reserves, as well as Azerbaijan, which claimed to be able to supply gas to all of Europe.
As a result, Turkmens cannot qualitatively increase their gas supplies to China, and the Shah Deniz field is not even enough to supply the TANAP gas pipeline, which cost the EU enormous money. Now Baku for this project generally buys gas from Gazprom.
“Turkmenistan has not been able to confirm its claim to first place in the world in terms of gas reserves, and as for Azerbaijan, this country has big problems with the implementation of its oil and gas projects,” Perov notes.
For example, in the nineties, Russia was scared that Azerbaijan had found several huge deposits on the Caspian shelf and would soon take our country's place in the oil market. Then it turned out that there were oil reserves there, but much more modest than stated.
“There was a story with gas reserves in Ukraine, which are there, but do not have great commercial value, that is, the extraction of raw materials will not be profitable, which is why Western companies decided not to join this country, ”Perov concludes.
In Ukraine, there was even an informational throw-in that Donbass wanted to seize because of its shale gas reserves, but all this was not worth a damn egg if we take commercial production, and not just the presence of deposits. After all, the cost of reserves does not depend on their quantity, but on the complexity of extraction, since energy is, first of all, an economic process.
“But in Ukraine there are reserves of mine methane, so it is not clear why the Ukrainians needed a story with shale gas in order to attract investment, given that they had such energy at hand,” sums up Perov.

Thus, the Georgian opportunity is far from the only one in the history of international energy.

Source https://rueconomics.ru/425772-demokraticheskoe-sotrudnichestvo-s-ssha-vylilos-dlya-gruzii-v-gazovuyu-aferu

Posted by Looed on the 20th January :-

Another Russian article attacking FRR / USA + Georgia Pt.1
The title already tells you which direction the article will take -
“Democratic” cooperation with the United States turned into a gas scam for Georgia
21:11 January 19, 2020 3 169 Tbilisi, Georgia
Information on the availability of large reserves of natural gas in Georgia was initially in doubt, said Alexander Perov, head of special projects of the National Energy Security Fund.
Georgians became victims of gas fraud
Georgian Deputy Speaker Georgy Volsky said that US Congressman Markwane Mullin was biased, saying that the Georgian state was deviating "from democratic values ??and economic prosperity."
The reason for this was the situation with the company Frontera Eastern Georgia, which is conducting proceedings in the Stockholm arbitration with the Georgian International Oil and Gas Corporation. The reason for this arbitration was the failure of history with 5 trillion cubic meters of gas, which American experts allegedly found in Georgia, but which in practice turned out to be a media illusion.
Three years ago, the American company Frontera Resources, whose “daughter” is involved in the Stockholm trial, announced that Georgia had found reserves of 5 trillion cubic meters of gas and it would take only five years for Tbilisi to become an importer of this natural raw material, but Today, this story ended with a political scandal and a hasty winding up of the Georgian gas project.
It is not yet completely clear who deceived whom and how here, but it is obvious that another precedent occurred in Georgia when the wish was passed as valid in order to receive investment funds for the production of non-existent gas.
“Hydrocarbon production in Georgia, if it makes sense, is only on the shelf of the Black Sea, since this area really has sufficient hydrocarbon reserves - one can recall at least the Crimean projects,” Perov notes.
Similar undertakings exist in Romania and Bulgaria, which plan to develop their production on the Black Sea shelf, but within the framework of this Georgian history, which is very difficult to judge, the conversation was about a slightly different direction of mining activity.
“It is possible that Georgia has reserves of 5 trillion cubic meters of gas, but such statements are highly doubtful. It is difficult to judge the gas reserves in the continental Georgian territory, but this story was not initially credible. It was obvious that this was a fraud aimed at receiving dividends from the gullibility of Georgian authorities and investors, ”Perov concludes.
In practice, Mullin defends the interests of Frontera Resources through rhetoric about “democratic values.”The senator did not like the fact that Tbilisi began a trial with the American structure, which once declared the presence in this country of 5 trillion cubic meters of gas.

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