Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR is not in talks with the Russian Gazprom company on gas purchases, President of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev said.
He said that SOCAR sent offers to the Gazprom, on the basis of which Azerbaijani state oil company could buy Russian gas, but currently no talks were being held.
Earlier, Director General of the Gazprom Transgaz Makhachkala OJSC Alexander Astanin said that his company was holding talks regarding the annual supply of 3-5 billion cubic meters of gas to Azerbaijan.
“The gas purchase will enable us to increase the volume of its injection into reservoirs, as well as to test the capacity of our gas storage facilities”, said Abdullayev earlier, adding that currently, their capacity neared 3.5 billion cubic meters, but in theory, it was possible to increase it to more than 5 billion cubic meters.
Gas consumption greatly increased in Azerbaijan over the past two years.
The gas extracted at the Shah Deniz, is contracted for its supply to Georgia and Turkey.
In this regard, the gas swap with Gazprom will enable Azerbaijan to ensure the gas supply to southern regions of Russia and to test its own gas storage facilities (Kalmaz and Garadagh), as well as, in case of a consistently high level of injection into them, to reduce the volume of extraction of associated gas at the ACG, and to pump it to the maximum extent to reservoirs to increase oil output at the block.
Currently, Gazprom has a contract on purchasing Azerbaijani gas. The document was signed on October 14, 2009 with the possibility of extension. The contract between SOCAR and Russia’s Gazprom allows to suspend and resume gas supplies any time. (Trend/Business World Magazine)
