Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.17
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
The SOCAR company (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) exported to Russia more than 200 million cubic meters of gas in 2014, compared to 1.37 billion cubic meters in 2013, a source in the SOCAR company told Trend Jan.16.
The source said that reduction of the volumes of gas supplies to Russia has objective reasons, which are associated with the creation of a new road and transport infrastructure, as well as repair work on the pipeline.
"In total, Russia received 207 million cubic meters of gas in 2014," he said.
Earlier, the other source in SOCAR told Trend that SOCAR had no immediate plans to restore gas exports to Russia.
In early September 2014, SOCAR stopped supplying gas to Russia in connection with the construction of the remaining section of the highway Baku-Quba-Russian border and maintenance work on the gas transport infrastructure.
The gas supply to Russia has not been restored, as the road section has not yet been constructed. Moreover, the technical work is underway in the gas transport infrastructure.
Azerbaijani gas is supplied to Russia on the basis of the contract on the purchase and sale of Azerbaijani gas with a possibility of extension. The deal was signed between SOCAR and Russia's Gazprom in Baku on October 14, 2009.
The contract between SOCAR and Russian Gazprom allows suspending and resuming gas supplies at any time.
The decline in export volumes is connected with the previous repair on the gas pipeline stretching from Azerbaijan to Russia. Gas supplies were suspended in January and restored in June 2014. It was announced about the temporary suspension of gas supplies in September.
Gazprom was to receive 2 billion cubic meters of gas in 2011 and over 2 billion cubic meters in 2012, in accordance with a 2010 supplement to the contract. However, the Russian side did not get the full amount of the planned volume as of 2012.
The additional agreement to double the volume of Azerbaijani gas purchased by Russia, from 1.5 billion cubic meters to 3 billion cubic meters, was signed by both sides in Sochi on January 24, 2012.
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