Baku News

03 July 2007 - Upstream OnLine - Azerbaijan has reportedly offered to deliver natural gas to Russia's Gazprom monopoly via the Gazi-Mozdok pipeline in the southern Dagestan region. "We have offered to sell Gazprom 1 million to 1.5 million cubic metres of gas per day at $230 per 1000 cubic metres to supply Dagestan," a source at Azeri state oil and gas company Socar told Reuters today.. Azerbaijan's Economy Ministry confirmed the country could supply gas to Russia. "We are ready to sell gas to Russia and are expecting the answer on whether they would be interested in near future," Economy Minister Haydar Babayev said. Gazprom denied receiving an offer. "We have not received any official offers on that," said a spokesman. Azerbaijan produces up to 27 million cubic metres of gas per day and hopes to boost output by 10-15 million cubic metres per day as it develops the Caspian Sea Shah-Deniz field, launched last year. Azerbaijan, which bought about 4.5 billion cubic metres of gas from Gazprom in 2006, stopped buying Russian gas this year after the company more than doubled the price to $235 per 1000 cubic metres.