The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and Iran will launch talks on the Azerbaijani gas supplies to Iran in the third week of December...

 a source in the oil and gas market said today. In mid-November, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and Iranian national gas company signed the memorandum on mutual understanding on Azerbaijani gas supplies to Iran beginning from 2010. "The talks will focus on commercial and technical issues of the project," the source said. According to the source, a contract on the purchase of the Azerbaijani gas is not expected to be signed in 2009. The contract will be signed next year. Most likely that it will be in the second half of the year. Because, Iran will not need superfluous gas in the summer season. Earlier SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayed said, at the initial stage the company will deliver Iran the gas in volume, which currently allows the existing gas infrastructure between the parties. Currently, the infrastructure allows to deliver about 500 million cubic meters of gas per year. In the future, the parties intend to expand capacity by increasing the capacity of gas compressor stations. The gas price has not been specified.

Recently, Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mohammad Bagir Behrami has stated that Iran intends to purchase about 5 billion cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has four directions of gas export, including Turkey, Georgia, Russia and Iran. At present, gas is exported to Turkey and Georgia. Azerbaijani gas will be exported to Russia from early 2010. At present, Azerbaijan exports gas upon swap conditions with further transfer of Iranian gas to provide the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Azerbaijan and Iran are connected with the Kazi-Magomed-Astara pipeline gas pipeline. Its length is 1474.5 kilometers, including the territory of Azerbaijan - 296.5 kilometers. Its capacity is 10 billion cubic meters per year. This route is a branch of the pipeline Gazakh-Astara-Iran, put into operation in 1971. Three compressor stations in Kazi-Magomed, Agdash and Gazakh have been built. The gas transportation system is 55 atmospheres. Pipe diameter is 1,200 mm.