Iran-Russia Oil Swap Via Azerbaijan

Tehran, Sept 21, IRNA – The Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Russia Polad Bulbuloglu says Azerbaijan is ready to consider participation possibility in organizing Iran’s oil exports to Russia through a trilateral swap. “We have already established links in the electricity sector. This is possible, but is not concrete yet,” the diplomat, quoted by ITAR Tass said. The report further added that at present the Republic of Azerbaijan provides gas swap to Iran in order to supply gas to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The Republic of Azerbaijan and Iran are connected by Gazi-Mohammad-Astara 1,474.5 km pipeline of which 296.5 km is in the Azeri territory. This route is part of Kazakh-Astara-Iran pipeline which started operation in 1971. Three compressor stations in Gazi-Mohammad, Agdash and Kazakh have been built on this route. The diameter of the pipeline is 1,200 mm. SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) exports its gas to Gazprom of Russia under a contract which was signed in October 2009./end