Georgia resumes gas supplies to S. Ossetia

TBILISI, Georgia, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- The republic of Georgia is set to resume gas supplies to the breakaway region of South Ossetia following repairs to a pipeline damaged in an August conflict.

Russia and Georgia entered into a military conflict over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. The skirmish disrupted several major energy arteries in the region, including the 1,099-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

Georgia said in December that August damage to the Agara-Tskhinvali pipeline caused disruptions to gas supplies to South Ossetia.

"The Georgian side, however, launched restoration works on this section of the gas pipeline, being, though, aware that examination of the full length of the pipeline would in any case be necessary for technical security reasons," a statement from the Georgian Foreign Ministry said

Alexei Miller, the chief executive of Russian energy monopoly Gazprom, told Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that "Georgia is prepared to resume gas supplies to South Ossetia," the English-language weekly The Georgian Times said Tuesday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told European officials in December that Georgia had acted inhumanely by allegedly cutting the supplies of gas to South Ossetia in the wake of the August conflict.