Azerbaijan to supply Iran with gas

Tehran and Baku have signed a memorandum of mutual understanding on Azerbaijani gas supplies to Iran beginning from 2010.

"More than 500 million cubic meters of gas per year are planned to be supplied within the memorandum with an opportunity to increase supplies," said the head of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), Rovnag Abdullayev.

The MoU was signed between SOCAR and Iran's National Gas Company, he said, adding that the volume of gas transferred would depend on the state of gas infrastructure connecting the two countries at the initial stage.

The contract to supply gas to Iran is expected to be officially signed by late 2009, Abdullayev said.

Azerbaijan currently exports gas to Turkey and Georgia but Baku owns the necessary infrastructure to export its gas to Iran and Russia as well.

Azerbaijan and Iran are connected via the Kazi-Magomed-Astara gas pipeline which has the capacity to transfer 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year.