Azerbaijan, Baku, June 3 / Trend , E.Ismaylov /
The main purpose of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) in the negotiations with the Turkish side is to set gas prices within the development of Azerbaijani offshore gas field Shah Deniz in accordance with a formula tied to the changing prices of oil, said a senior representative of SOCAR on July 3.
"We do not want to talk about concrete figures, but want the changes in the price of oil to be adapted to the price of our gas," said the representative of SOCAR.
He said that the company expressed its desire, not only on the basis of today's conjuncture. The main desire of the company is that the price of Azerbaijani gas is brought into conformity with the prices for natural gas from other sources, entering the Turkish market. "We want to play according to common rules," he added.
Recently, the role of gas in the energy factor has increased in the world. Gas transformed from a by-product into main, and therefore, the changes in its prices are a normal dynamic process, said the representative of SOCAR.
Soon it is expected to hold next round of talks between SOCAR and the Turkish side on the cost of gas.
Currently, Azerbaijan intends to increase the cost of gas for Turkey within the first stage of development of Shah Deniz. Today Azerbaijani gas to Turkey is supplied at a price of $120 per 1,000 cubic meters. However, the price was specified in the contract, concluded in 2001.
As stipulated in the contract concluded with Turkey, the cost of gas from Shah Deniz can be re-considered one year after starting supply, i.e. the new price would be applied from 15 April 2008.
According to the contract, Turkey is to receive 6.6 billion cubic meters of gas from the Shah Deniz field in the first stage of development of the project.
The contract on development of off-shore Shah Deniz field was signed on 4 June 1996. Shah Deniz participating interests are: ВР (operator - 25.5%), StatoilHydro (25.5%), SOCAR (10%), LukAgip (10%), NICO (10%), Total (10%), and TPAO (9%).
Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at: [email protected]