Azerbaijan, Baku, July 25 / Trend, A. Badalova /
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) is going to get access to the Middle East market through Turkey, SOCAR Foreign Investments Department head Vagif Aliyev said at a meeting with Turkish journalists, Today's zaman reported.
"We have already conducted preliminary exploration with the potential consumer countries in the Middle East. As soon as the situation in Syria is stabilized, we will start gas sale to all consumers in the Middle East," Aliyev said.
Supply of the Azerbaijani gas to Syria will be possible after completing the construction of the pipeline Turkey - Syria (Kilisi-Aleppo). However, political instability in Syria may affect the time of project completion.
Turkish BOTAS company plans to complete the route linking Turkey with Syrian Aleppo next year. This route will allow SOCAR to sell gas to Jordan and Israel.
The length of the gas pipeline between Aleppo and Kilisi is about 65 kilometers.
During the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's visit to Azerbaijan in July 2009, the sides agreed to supply one billion cubic meters of gas per year.
In April 2010, Azerbaijan signed a protocol on economic cooperation with Jordan, which included a basis for discussion of export of unspecified amount of Azerbaijani oil and gas to Jordan.
"Syria has displayed interest in building a pipeline connecting its gas network with Turkey, and BOTAS has already completed construction of some part of the pipeline in the border areas," Aliyev said.