Azerbaijan, Baku, 3 June / Trend corr. S.Aliyev / Israel is to sign a long term agreement with Azerbaijan to import gas from 2012 onwards, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Minister of National Infrastructure of Israel, stated in the news-conference in Baku on 3 June.
"The term of the agreement may cover 20 or 30 years. The issue of the agreement on gas import was discussed in Baku on 3 June," the Minister said.
According to Israel, the gas usage within next 10 years will increase from the current 2 or 2.5mln cu m to 12bln cu m.
Israel considers Azerbaijan as one of its most important strategic partner.
"We have held negotiations with many manufacturers, and Azerbaijan takes a special and important place. We assess the cooperation with Azerbaijan in gas import sphere at $40bln rate," the Minister said in an interview.
The volume of the gas production will total 20bln cu m after development of the Stage -2 of Shah Daniz project in Azerbaijan in 2012.