Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan has discussed with Russia increasing exports of Azerbaijani oil and natural gas, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Monday, Russia’s Rossiya 24 TV channel reported.

"We discussed the issue of pumping an additional volume of oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline [stretching from the Azerbaijani capital to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk] and issues of increasing gas supplies," Mammadyarov said. "The Azerbaijani oil company [Socar] is holding talks in this context with our Russian counterparts."

Socar and Russian gas giant Gazprom signed a medium-term contract with a possibility of extension for the sale of Azerbaijani gas to Russia in Baku in October 2009. According to the supplement to the contract signed in early September 2010, Gazprom will receive 2 billion cubic meters of gas this year, and the supplies will increase further in 2012.

Supplies of Azerbaijani gas to Russia began in January 2010. Socar exported about 800 million cubic meters of gas to Russia in 2010.

Socar is using the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline for trans-shipment of oil extracted at the fields it is developing, as well as crude produced by the joint ventures and operating companies tapping Azerbaijan’s onshore deposits.

Before 2007, the northern route export pipeline was run by the BP-operated Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC), which further transferred the conduit to Socar’s disposal. Socar exported 2.24 million tons of oil in 2010, compared to 2.5 million tons in 2009.