OREANDA-NEWS  Gazprom in its Telegram channel announced the start of gas supplies to Azerbaijan under a new purchase and sale agreement on November 15. Deliveries will last until March 2023.

The corresponding document was signed with the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR). The total volume of supplies is expected to be at the level of a billion cubic meters, the objectives of the contract for SOCAR are not specified.

Azerbaijan has its own gas reserves and actively supplies it for export, primarily to Turkey and then in transit to Europe. The supply of Russian fuel to the republic can be explained as an increased amount of exports or further transit of gas to Iran, with which Moscow had previously agreed on swap sales.

The cost of gas for Azerbaijan is not specified, but both options mean that the price will be significantly lower than that which is formed on the European gas exchanges.

In early November, it was reported that the Bulgarian leadership had halved gas prices for the population after Azerbaijani gas began to flow to the republic. At the end of October, President Ilham Aliyev said that by 2027 Baku wants to increase exports to the European Union to almost 20 billion cubic meters per year.

Meanwhile, Gazprom's exports to non-CIS countries decreased by 42.6 percent (by 67.6 billion cubic meters) in the first ten months of the year compared to the same period in 2021.