Azerbaijan, Baku, May 27 / Trend E.Ismayilov /
Currently, within the swap operations Azerbaijan daily supplies to Iran 1.1 million cubic meters of gas for providing the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic located in the blockade with gas, a source in the oil and gas market said.
The source said of the total received volume only half goes to meet Nakhchivan' gas demand and the remainder is kept as a reserve for delivery during the growth of demand in the Nakhchivan.
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 company also continues gas exports to Russia in the amount of three million cubic meters per day.
Azerbaijan started gas supplies to Russia Jan. 1, 2010.
A medium-term contract on the purchase and sale of Azerbaijani gas to Russia (with the possibility of extension) was signed between SOCAR and Gazprom in Baku Oct. 14. It covers 2010-2014. Under the contract, the Azerbaijani side will annually supply gas amounting to no less than 500 million cubic meters to Russia. The contract did not specify a limit to the gas supply volume. SOCAR will notify the opposite side of the amount which the company can deliver for the next six months.
Earlier, Gazprom and SOCAR agreed that in 2009 Russia would acquire 1 billion cubic meters of the Azerbaijani gas instead of 500 million and in 2011 the volume of supply would be doubled and reach about 2 billion cubic meters.