Azerbaijan, Baku, March 29 / Trend , E. Ismayilov /
Currently, within the swap operations Azerbaijan daily supplies to Iran 1.4 million cubic meters of gas for providing Nakhichivan Autonomous Republic located in the blockade with gas, a source in the oil and gas market said.
"At present, gas supplies to Iran are carried out only on the basis swap operations. Daily 1.4 million cubic meters of gas are supplied to Iran for the Nakhichivan Autonomous Republic," the source said.
Azerbaijan and Iran are connected with the Gazi-Magomed-Astara-Bind-Biand gas pipeline, 1,474.5-kilometers long. Its capacity was 10 billion cubic meters a year, but now it is lower. This route is a branch of the Gazakh-Astara-Iran pipeline commissioned in 1971. Three compressor stations -Gazi-Magomed, Aghdash and Gazakh -were built.
SOCAR and NIGEC signed a short-term contract for gas supplies to Iran in January. Signing of a long-term contract between the sides is expected in autumn of 2010.
The source said that commercial gas supplies to Iran have not yet started.
Also by this autumn SOCAR plans to complete the construction of a new gas compressor station in Astara (located 300 km south of Baku) for the commercial supply of Azerbaijani gas to Iran, the source said.
SOCAR said that the selection of equipment needed for the construction of a new gas compressor station is underway and project task has been already prepared.
Currently, in Astara there is a compressor station, built in 2005, with capacity 2.2 million cubic meters per day. Capacity of the new station will be five million cubic meters per day.