Azernews.Az

Russian-Azerbaijani annual trade turnover may hit a record high of $3 billion by the end of 2011, the Russian trade representative in Azerbaijan Yuri Shchedrin has said.

According to him, the South Caucasus republic is Russia’s biggest trading partner among CIS states.

Shchedrin told a news conference Wednesday that bilateral trade amounted to over $1.9 billion in the first eight months of 2011, or nearly 63 percent over the same period of 2010. Azerbaijan’s exports to Russia surged more than 72 percent to $832 million, while the country’s imports from its northern neighbor rose 56 percent to over $1 billion.

Shchedrin said fuel and energy play a special role in the rapid development of Russian-Azerbaijani economic relations. He noted that Azerbaijan’s natural gas exports to his country are expected to reach 2 billion cubic meters by the year-end.

"Most of this gas is used to meet the needs of the population of [Russian republic] of Daghestan," Shchedrin said.

Shchedrin said Russia was seeking to increase gas imports from Azerbaijan. He said Russia was ready to receive any amount of gas that Azerbaijan could supply, adding that gas prices suit both countries.

The trade representative also noted that 1.3 million tons of oil were pumped in January-August through Baku-Novorossiysk, a northern route pipeline stretching from the Azerbaijani capital to the Russian Black sea port of Novorossiysk.