Gazprom chief Alexei Miller and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, or Socar, chief Rovnag Abdullayev had a meeting, where it was decided that Gazprom will buy Azeri gas. The deliveries are due to start next year.
Gazprom and Socar will jointly inspect a 200-kilometer pipeline from Baku, the Azeri capital, to the border point of Novo-Filya, in Dagestan, to determine the extent of upgrades required for the shipments to begin, it was said in the official statement.
Gazprom first offered to buy Azeri gas in June. Initial talks with Socar began the next month. Azerbaijan, which bought gas from Gazprom until 2007, became a gas exporter after BP-led fields began production that year.
Gazprom's purchase of Azeri gas would reduce the likelihood that there will be enough gas to fill Nabucco, said Tatyana Mitrova, director of the Center for the Study of the Global Energy Markets at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Interfax reported.
It means that the task of diversification of gas supplies which is one of the main urgencies for the EU will hardly be fullfilled.
Author: Ksenia Kochneva