Azerbaijan to double gas supplies to Russia in 2010

BAKU (RIA Novosti) -- Azerbaijan will double natural gas supplies to Russia to 1 billion cubic meters per year from 2010, the president of the State Oil and Gas Company said on Saturday.

“We have held negotiations. Azerbaijan has a potential to increase gas supplies, we will supply Russia with 1 billion cu m of gas in 2010,” Rovnag Abdullayev said.

The two ex-Soviet states signed a contract on October 14, 2009 under which the Caucasus nation was to supply 500 million cu m of gas to Russia from January 1, 2010 with the possibility of increasing the import levels.

The contract raised concerns in Europe which looks to Azerbaijan as a potential contributor to the Western-backed Nabucco pipeline that circumvents Russia. Nabucco is aimed at reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian energy supplies.

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