SOCAR to Increase Russian Supply to 3BCM in 2013

State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) will increase gas supply to Russia to 3 billion cubic metres (bcm) this year, president of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev has said today.

The company plans to increase current supply by 1.5 billion cubic metres from the 1.5 billion cubic metres of gas supplied last year, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta and the Kyiv Post have both reported. 

"We have a contract with Russia for the supply of 3 bcm of gas a year, and supply volumes are planned in that order," the Kyiv Post reports Mr. Abdullayev as saying.

"Last year SOCAR delivered just 1.5 bcm of gas to Russia, which was connected with decreased gas consumption by Russia in the summer. In general, we don't have problems increasing quantities of gas exports to Russia, and we are working in this direction."

The official also said that there were currently no plans to create a new gas contract with Gazprom for the increased supply nor to add any addendums. A contract already in place would fulfill the requirements of the increase in supply.