OREANDA-NEWS. January 05, 2010. State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) is finishing preparation for the beginning of gas export to Iran.

SOCAR says that the parties are going to complete another round of negotiations to launch gas export to Iran.

The Company refrains from disclosing any terms of export start, and Iranian sources indicate early February.

Earlier SOCAR president Rovnag Abdullayev stated that repairs works on infrastructure for gas export to Iran were still underway.

“Export itself of up to 5 million cu m per day will start after completion of repairs,” Abdullayev said.

He did not indicate finishing date but it will hardly be 1st January 2010.

The contract for gas supplies to Iran was signed between SOCAR and National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) in the course of the visit of Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov to this country in mid-December.

At the same time SOCAR launched on schedule (since 1st January 2010) gas export to Russia within the relevant contract with Russian gas monopoly Gazprom (the contract signed by the two countries’ monopolies envisages annual export of at least 500,000 cu m of gas a year to Russia in period of until 2014 inclusively). Current supplies to Russia make up 1.5 million cu m of gas and in 2010 SOCAR will supply 1 bn cu m of gas to Russia.