Azerbaijan, Baku, 6 May / Trend corr. A.Badalova / Israel has stepped up efforts in recent weeks to increase the number of natural gas suppliers, Israel's National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, stated in the conference in Tel-Aviv, Platts reported.
Speaking at a conference in Tel Aviv Sunday Ben-Eliezer said his Ministry is currently in discussions with BG, Gazprom, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan about future supplies.
In addition, National Infrastructure Ministry director-general Hezi Kugler held talks last week in Azerbaijan about future gas supplies. The details of the negotiations have not been informed.
Azerbaijan produces oil from the Shah Daniz field (where BP is operator). Oil purchasers of this field are Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Gas is supplied via the South-Caucasian pipeline. Gas could be transported to Israel via Turkey, where Botas accepts gas in the Erzrum produced from Shah Daniz field.
According to the US Energy Information Agency (EIA), in 2006, some 240bln cu foot of gas was produced in Azerbaijan against 205.5bln cu foot in 2005.
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