Azerbaijan, Baku, Apr. 2 / Trend /
Azerbaijan will build a new gas compressor station in the Astara region to increase the country's gas supply to Iran in the framework of a long-term contract. The contract is scheduled to be signed in fall 2010, an oil and gas industry source said.
The station may raise the pressure of supplied gas to 75 atmospheres, which will increase the volume of the Azerbaijani gas exports to Iran. Repairs and reconstruction works have been conducted in various areas of the pipeline linking Azerbaijan and Iran .
Construction of the station is necessary to ensure daily Azerbaijani gas exports to Iran in the amount of 5 million cubic meters, along with gas transportation to Iran on the of basis swap operations for Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Azerbaijan transfers 1.4 million cubic meter of gas to Iran for this purpose.
Azerbaijan and Iran are connected with the Gazi-Magomed-Astara-Bind-Biand gas pipeline, which runs an approximate 1,475 kilometers. Its capacity was once 10 billion cubic meters a year, but has dropped in the recent past. The route is a branch of the Gazakh-Astara-Iran pipeline commissioned in 1971. Three compressor stations were built - Gazi-Magomed, Aghdash and Gazakh.
SOCAR and NIGEC signed a short-term contract for gas supplies to Iran in January. The signing of a long-term contract between the sides is expected in autumn 2010.