Azernews.Az

ANKARA – Turkey paid to Azerbaijan about one billion dollars in the framework of the payments of difference in cost of the Azerbaijani gas purchased by Turkey from the first phase of development of offshore gas field Shahdaniz, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said in an interview with the Sabah newspaper.

Under the agreement signed in 2001, the price of Azerbaijani gas sold to Turkey was $120 per 1,000 cubic meters. Though supplies to the neighboring country were expected to begin in 2004, Azerbaijani gas reached the Turkish market in July 2007 -- by the time gas prices had surged in world markets.

Turkey was importing 5 billion cubic meters of gas per year from the South Caucasus republic. Until April 2008, the country was paying $120. According to the contract concluded by Shahdaniz partners with Turkey, the price of Azerbaijani gas was to be reconsidered since then.

After long-standing talks between Azerbaijan’s state energy firm SOCAR and the Turkish government, the two countries signed a new gas agreement this June during President Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Istanbul. As a result of negotiations, Turkey agreed to pay an additional $1.4 billion for the gas it imported between April 2008 and June 2010.