Azerbaijan's SOCAR, Russia's Gazprom to start gas swaps

Azerbaijan's state oil company (SOCAR) and Russia's Gazprom, one of the world's largest companies, will soon implement swap transactions of Russian gas supplies to Azerbaijan, SOCAR president Rovnag Abdullayev said here Thursday.

Abdullayev said the agreement will be signed in two weeks.

"Gazprom has an excess of natural gas and therefore we have decided to store these volumes in our gas storage facilities," Abdullayev said.

The company has expanded its gas storage facilities as the supply of around 10 million cubic meters of Russian gas per day will start next month, Abdullayev said, adding that the supply of Russian gas will become a pilot project for testing the capabilities of the new facilities.

"In total, we are talking about supplying around 2 billion cubic meters of gas per year," he said.

The gas will be used for supplying Russia's southern regions in the future, Abdullayev said. Endi