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BAKU – Azerbaijan, Turkey and Greece have agreed to sign a new agreement that will allow to transport Azerbaijani gas to Greece without Turkish mediation, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said Wednesday.

Aliyev said in conclusion of a meeting of the Azerbaijani-Greek inter-governmental commission on economic cooperation that the South Caucasus republic currently exports 700 million cubic meters of gas per year under a Turkish-Greek agreement. However, a decision has been passed to sign a new deal between Azerbaijan and Greece to launch direct gas supplies from the Caspian country.

Initially, the new agreement envisions exports of the same volume, but the two countries may look into increasing Azerbaijani gas supplies in the future, the minister said.

Azerbaijan’s gas is presently delivered to Turkey from Shahdaniz, its biggest gas field in the Caspian Sea that holds estimated reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic meters, through the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline, which crosses Georgia.

The Greek co-chair of the inter-governmental commission, Deputy Foreign Minister Spyros Kouvelis said his country was expecting Azerbaijan to turn into a major gas supplier to Greece. He stressed the importance for Athens of implementing projects under the planned Southern Corridor of pipelines. He said Greece was particularly focusing on the Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline (ITGI), which could be extended to Bulgaria and Romania in the future.

"Azerbaijan’s role is crucial for the implementation of the ITGI project. Close cooperation among Azerbaijan, Greece, Italy and Turkey is necessary to advance the development of this route," Kouvelis said.

Kouvelis said further that in addition to oil and gas sales, Greece and Azerbaijan could cooperate in oil refining. Greece could share its experience in a variety of fields including alternative sources of energy, road construction, as well as tourism, health and education, he added.

The Azerbaijani energy minister said bilateral trade turnover has reached $160 million in a short time, citing vast potential to increase it further.