The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company's Management Committee and Rovnag Abdullayev, President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR).

The parties discussed bilateral cooperation in the energy sector and appreciated the efforts taken by Gazprom and SOCAR for maintaining gas supplies from Azerbaijan to Russia. The meeting participants noted that the partnership deepening between the companies was a strategic field of long-term interaction between the two countries.

Background

Azerbaijan possesses up to 1.5 trillion cubic meters of explored natural gas reserves including the Shah Deniz field located in the Azerbaijani offshore sector of the Caspian Sea with possible gas reserves of up to 1.2 trillion cubic meters. Natural gas consumption in Azerbaijan is at some 10 billion cubic meters per year.

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) is Azerbaijan's largest state-owned petroleum company involved in oil, natural gas and gas condensate exploration, production, processing, transportation and marketing.

On October 14, 2009 Gazprom and SOCAR signed the purchase and sale contract for Azerbaijani natural gas. Starting from January 1, 2010 Azerbaijani gas has been supplied to Russia via the Shirvanovka gas metering station.

On September 3, 2010 Gazprom and SOCAR signed the addendum to the effective purchase and sale contract for the Azerbaijani natural gas, stipulating that the annual purchase volume would grow to 2 billion cubic meters in 2011.