Baku, Azerbaijan, June 20
By Ilkin Izzet - Trend:
Iran expressed intention to purchase the Azerbaijani gas and to consider the possibility of storing its gas in the underground gas storage facilities of this country, Iran's Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mojtaba Khosrow-Taj said.
He made the remarks at a press conference in the Iranian embassy in Azerbaijan on June 20
The deputy minister underscored that this issue was discussed during his meeting with the head of Azerbaijan's State Oil Company (SOCAR), Rovnag Abdullayev.
Khosrow-Taj said that as part of the energy cooperation, Iran considers the possibility of creating a joint enterprise with the SOCAR company to carry out activities in third countries, such as Russia.
Additionally, the cooperation in the petrochemical sphere is among the priorities for Iran.
SOCAR and the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) had a short-term gas supply contract signed several years ago. Moreover, Iran was ready to purchase several billion cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan per year, however, the related negotiations were not successful.
Currently, the Azerbaijani gas is delivered to Iran under the 'swap' operations to provide the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, which is under the blockade due to Armenia's occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories, with gas. The annual gas supply volume exceeds one million cubic meters.
Azerbaijan and Iran are connected by the Gazi-Muhammad-Astara-Bind-Biand gas pipeline with the length of over 1,474 kilometers. Some 296.5 kilometers of this pipeline runs through Azerbaijan. It is a branch of the Gazakh-Astara-Iran pipeline commissioned in 1971. Three compressor stations were built on its route, namely, in Gazi-Muhammad, Aghdash and Gazakh. The diameter of the pipeline is 1,200 millimeters.
SOCAR includes Azneft (onshore and offshore oil and gas production), Azerkimya (chemical industry) and Azerigas (gas distribution) production associations.
The State Oil Company is the only producer of oil products in the country (it has two refineries), and it also has gas stations in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Romania and Switzerland. SOCAR is the co-owner of the largest Turkish petrochemical complex Petkim and has purchased the Itera-Georgia and Switzerland's Esso Schweiz.
Edited by CN
