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Russia offers to buy all gas Azerbaijan will pump

25 December 2008 08:07 (UTC +04:00)

Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said on Wednesday that the Russian company offers to buy all the natural gas Azerbaijan is able to export abroad.
â€œOur offer is very promising, and negotiations are under way. We have necessary infrastructure for such supplies,â€ he added.
He did not specify the price or when Azerbaijani gas supplies to Russia may begin.
Earlier, Gazprom Deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev said the gas could flow through an existing pipeline that connects Russia and Azerbaijan and that the gas could come from the second stage of the Shakh Deniz field.
If realized, the plan would rival EU efforts to secure gas supplies from the Caspian Sea.
Vagif Aliyev, Azerbaijani oil firm SOCARâ€™s head of international investments, said preliminary talks are under way on the establishment of short-term relations envisions exporting natural gas from Azerbaijan to Dagestan on swap contracts.
â€œSo far, there is no talk of the specific volume of natural gas or technical issues,â€ he added.
He added that SOCAR and Gazprom will hold another round of negotiations in January on long-term cooperation and possible relations in 2009.
â€œThe talks will consist of two parts - long-term and short-term joint operations. The long-term transactions include the purchase of gas from Phase II of Shah Deniz and the short-term expectation is gas supply through swap deals,â€ he noted.
SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said that negotiations with several countries on the exportation of gas from Phase 2 of Shah Deniz are under way.
â€œWe are exploring several options. One option is to sell the gas to Russiaâ€™s Gazprom and the second is to sell to Turkey,â€ he added.
The Shah Deniz project is a gas and condensate development in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea with planned gas exports to foreign countries.