Azerbaijan: Baku Doubles Gas Sales to Russia

Azerbaijan has more than doubled its natural gas exports to Russia, shipping up to 3 million cubic meters of gas per day to its northern neighbor as of March 5, the Russian energy giant Gazprom announced on March 9.

"Our cooperation with Azerbaijan is gaining pace," Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller was quoted by the RIA Novosti agency as saying. "We are happy about this and we want to reaffirm that Gazprom is ready to purchase all the gas Azerbaijan supplies in the future."

The uptick in supplies comes amid ongoing attempts by the European Union and the United States to kick-start the Nabucco pipeline project, [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Gazprom and its Azerbaijani partner SOCAR (State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic) signed an all-you-can-sell gas supply deal in 2009. In January this year, Gazprom said it will purchase up to 1 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas in 2010, and double the amount in the following year. The supply hike is reportedly intended for Russian domestic consumption. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive].