Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s September 2-3 visit to Azerbaijan yielded a big energy deal, as the Russian state-controlled conglomerate Gazprom secured an agreement to dramatically increase its purchases of Azerbaijani natural gas.
The pact between Gazprom and the Azerbaijani state entity SOCAR will double the amount of Russian gas purchases, from 1 billion cubic meters this year to 2 billion cubic meters in 2011. The deal also provides for an even greater level of imports in 2012 and beyond, with no set limit on Azerbaijani sales.
Such an arrangement raises questions about the future of some long-planned energy projects, namely the Nabucco pipeline. Azerbaijan is seen as a primary supplier of the Nabucco route. But this latest Russian deal stands to foster uncertainty over Azerbaijan’s desire to supply a sufficient volume of gas to make Nabucco financially tenable. Moscow has long opposed Nabucco, the completion of which would create a Caspian Basin export route that avoids Russian territory. [For background see the EurasiaNet's archive]."
No comments:
Post a Comment