Russia gets only a third of Azerbaijani gas supplies - trade rep
By Sabina Idayatova
Russian giant Gazprom still cannot receive the entire agreed amount of gas supplied from Azerbaijan - 3 billion cubic meters per year, Russian Trade Representative in Azerbaijan Yuriy Shchedrin said, according to Vestnik Kavkaza news agency.
"In January-September, the volume of Azerbaijani gas supplies to Russia did not exceed 1 billion cubic meters," he said.
"Though Azerbaijan and Russia agreed on bringing gas supplies to 3 billion cubic meters, only 944.9 million cubic meters were delivered over the nine months," Shchedrin noted.
"The share of mineral products made up 17.1 percent, decreasing 11.8 percent, which was the result of undersupply of the planned export volume of Azerbaijani gas to Russia," Shchedrin said.
Food and agricultural raw materials (55.4% of total exports) dominated Azerbaijan's exports to its northern neighbor in January-September 2012, with supplies increasing by 18.3 percent to reach $188.4 million.
Azerbaijani gas is supplied to Russia upon a contract signed by Azerbaijani state energy firm SOCAR and Gazprom on October 14, 2009. According to an addendum to the contract signed in Baku in September 2010, Gazprom was to receive 2 billion cubic meters in 2011 and over 2 billion in 2012. However, the Russian side did not get the full amount of planned volumes last year.
An additional agreement to increase the volume of Azerbaijani gas purchased by Russia from 1.5 to 3 billion cubic meters was signed by the parties in Sochi on January 24 this year.
After the signing, Gazprom's CEO Alexei Miller reportedly said Azerbaijan's geographic proximity, no limits on future gas supplies and developed infrastructure make the export of its gas to Russia more beneficial than to Europe.