Azerbaijan, Baku, July 10 / Trend /
Azerbaijan has agreed to sell 1 billion cubic meters of gas to Syria, said Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, at Azerbaijani-Syrian business-forum in Baku, while on an official visit in Azerbaijan, reported AzerTaj state agency.
"Azerbaijan agreed to sell 1 billion cubic meters of gas to Syria at the current rate. The Turkish side also approves of the issue," Assad said.
"We launched talks on either acquiring a gas supply or constructing a gas pipeline from Turkey to Syria two years ago. Azerbaijani gas can be supplied to Syria and from Syria to Jordan and Egypt via this pipeline. Purchase of natural gas has great importance for us as our reserves are small," the Syrian president said.
Most of the fuel to be transported via this route is Azerbaijani gas. Gas pipelines will promote the development of relations between the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea and the Persian Gulf regions. We held talks on the purchase of gas from Azerbaijan. This gas must be supplied to Syria via Turkey, he said.
Assad reminded everyone about political differences between Syria and Turkey. "Today, Turkey is our brother, in the true sense of the word" the Syrian president said.
Roughly 7 oil and gas pipelines operate in Azerbaijan, through which Azerbaijani energy resources are supplied to European and world markets, the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev said.
"We have export opportunities in all directions. I think that the project to join Syria with the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum is realizable. We will greatly enjoy working on this project," Ilham Aliyev said.
Gas production will hit 25-27 billion cubic meters in Azerbaijani in 2009. Azerbaijani gas is transported to different countries, including Georgia, Turkey, Greece and Iran. Azerbaijani gas will be exported to Russia from 2010 in accordance with a signed agreement. "The wider the geographic sphere, the better the situation for both consumers and producers," the Azerbaijani president said.