Today in Krasnaya Polyana Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Rovnag Abdullayev, President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) signed in the presence of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliev an addendum to the effective purchase and sale contract for the Azerbaijani natural gas.
Pursuant to the addendum, the annual amount of gas purchase from Azerbaijan will rise from 1.5 to 3 billion cubic meters in 2012 and will surpass 3 billion cubic meters starting from 2013.
Alexey Miller and Rovnag Abdullayev appreciated the rapid development of the companies' interaction in the gas sector and stressed that stronger ties between Gazprom and SOCAR met strategic interests of both countries.
“We have been doubling the purchase of Azerbaijani gas for the second consecutive year. The Russian-Azerbaijani energy partnership is developing at a good pace and that demonstrates the mutual aspiration for further buildup of hydrocarbons supplies. The absence of upper limit for the gas purchase amount, geographic proximity, well-developed gas transmission infrastructure and no transiting zones make natural gas export to Russia most profitable for Azerbaijan,” said Alexey Miller.
Background
Azerbaijan possesses up to 1.5 trillion cubic meters of explored natural gas reserves including the Shah Deniz field with possible natural gas reserves of up to 1.2 trillion cubic meters, which is located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) is Azerbaijan's largest state-owned petroleum company involved in oil, natural gas and gas condensate exploration, production, processing, transportation and marketing.
On October 14, 2009 Gazprom and SOCAR signed the purchase and sale contract for Azerbaijani natural gas. Azerbaijani gas has been supplied to Russia via the Shirvanovka gas metering station since January 1, 2010. The total of 0.8 billion cubic meters was supplied in 2010.
On September 3, 2010 Gazprom and SOCAR inked the addendum to the effective purchase and sale contract for the Azerbaijani natural gas.
In 2011 Azerbaijan supplied Russia with around 1.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
