Azerbaijan, Baku, July 18 / Trend /
The Azerbaijan - Russia economic relations are progressing, trade is groining and there exist real opportunities to increase it in the future, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said following the talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Monday, the Russia 24 television channel reported.
"We have discussed the issue of pumping more oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline and the issues of increasing gas supplies. The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) is in talks over this issue with counterparts from Russia," Mammadyarov said.
The medium-term contract on the purchase-sale of Azerbaijani gas to Russia (with the possibility of an extension) was signed between SOCAR and Gazprom in Baku on Oct. 14, 2009. According to the agreement, Gazprom will get 2 billion cubic meters in 2011 and more than 2 billion cubic meters in 2012.
Azerbaijan began gas supplies to Russia on Jan. 1, 2010.
SOCAR transships its own oil, as well as oil of joint ventures and operating companies operating in Azerbaijan's onshore fields, through Novorossiysk.
Until late 2007, AIOC was the operator of Baku-Novorossiysk. The structure then transferred these functions to SOCAR.
SOCAR exported 2.24 million tons of oil from Novorossiysk last year compared to 2.5 million tons in 2009.
In 2008, SOCAR exported 1.2 million tons of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk. The figure was around 1.2 million tons of crude oil in 2007 and in 2006. In 2005, SOCAR exported 1.6 million tons of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk