Gazprom to up Azeri gas imports

摘要

Gazprom has agreed to double purchases of natural gas from Azerbaijan to 1 billion cubic meters in 2010 and further to around 2 Bcm in 2011, the Russian gas giant said January 21, a deal that could scupper plans to use Azeri gas to fill the planned Nabucco pipeline from the Caspian region to the EU. The agreement was reached during a meeting between Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and the president of Azerbaijan's state-run Socar, Rovnag Abdullayev, earlier in the day in Moscow. Under a previous agreement signed in October 2009, Gazprom was to buy up to 500 million cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan in 2010, with the purchases starting January 1.