Georgia could find itself at the epicenter of a major international scandal. I want to remind citizens that the Kulevi oil processing plant is not just an ordinary private investment, and the "Georgian Dream" made a direct contribution to its construction, — this was stated by Tazo Datunashvili, one of the leaders of "Lelo for Georgia," regarding the Kulevi port.

As Tazo Datunashvili noted, according to Geostat data, in January 2026, petroleum products worth $56 million were exported from Georgia abroad, which is a 3,300% increase compared to the same period last year, while in three months a non-existent oil processing plant produced petroleum products worth $120 million. According to him, this is happening against the background that the Kulevi oil processing plant is not operating.

"Our party's regional organization tried to visit the said plant, but the citizens who arrived on site did not see any working plant there — there is no smoke coming from the plant, no waste, or any other evidence that would confirm its operation.

In addition, ambassadors of EU countries have already officially confirmed that the Kulevi port in Georgia has been included by the European Union in the 20th package of sanctions against Russia, which will soon be approved. And on February 24, Britain has already sanctioned a ship that imported 100 thousand tons of crude oil to Kulevi in October 2025.

Georgia could find itself at the epicenter of a major international scandal.

I want to remind citizens that the Kulevi oil processing plant is not just an ordinary private investment, and the "Georgian Dream" made a direct contribution to its construction," — stated Tazo Datunashvili.

According to him, on July 31, 2024, the Khobi Municipality Council approved a plan for LLC "Black Sea Petroleum" to build an oil processing plant and auxiliary infrastructure on a 599,970 sq.m. land plot. Datunashvili explained that on October 22, 2024, the entire government attended the presentation of the said plant's project.

"Kobakhidze even said that at the first stage, 500 people should be employed in the plant, and 'the majority of the employed would be local residents.'

'A plant of such scale may be created once in a century' — such a comical statement was made by Levan Davitashvili about the Kulevi oil processing enterprise.

On October 16, 2025, by resolution, the Government of Georgia adopted a special rule for the import of diesel to the Kulevi oil processing plant, making it possible to import low-quality diesel fuel if this product is intended for the oil processing plant for further processing.

The public should know that this international scandal was not simply caused by the arbitrariness of one investor or private individual; this is an international corruption scheme, the participants of which are the government and their informal patron Bidzina Ivanishvili with his bank!" — stated Tazo Datunashvili.