Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 6
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) has no immediate plans to restore gas exports to Russia, SOCAR told Trend Jan. 6. However, SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev said that gas exports to Russia might be restored in 2015.
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.
"The work is underway," Abdullayev said. "At this stage, it is difficult to talk about specific plans and timing of gas export restoration to the north."
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.
SOCAR exported about 100 million cubic meters of gas to Russia in the first half of 2014 compared to 876 million cubic meters in the same period of 2013.
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.
SOCAR exported 1.37 billion cubic meters of gas to Russia in 2013.
Gazprom was to receive two billion cubic meters of gas in 2011 and over two 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.
Edited by CN
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