Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Azerbaijan Threatens Turkey To Cut Gas Supplies

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Azerbaijan Threatens Turkey To Cut Gas Supplies

    AZERBAIJAN THREATENS TURKEY TO CUT GAS SUPPLIES

    PanARMENIAN.Net
    02.04.2009 13:21 GMT+04:00

    /PanARMENIAN.Net/ Concerned that the Turkish government might open its
    border with Armenia before reconciliation is reached, the Azerbaijani
    government has signaled it might stop selling natural gas to Turkey.

    Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that Baku would cut gas
    supplies to Turkey if Ankara reaches an agreement with Yerevan before
    substantial progress is underway on the Nagorno Karabakh issue,
    the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

    As a sign of how serious it is, Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of
    understanding with Russia last week for long-term supply of gas at
    market prices.

    Ankara and Baku have been trying to reach an agreement over the
    price of natural gas Turkey buys from Azerbaijan through the
    Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline. The agreement to buy natural gas
    for $120 per 1,000 cubic meters for the duration of the first year
    following the opening of the pipeline has long ended and the two
    failed to reach an agreement as Azerbaijan wants to sell its gas at
    international market prices, which is around $350 per 1,000 cubic
    meters.

    Russia, on the other hand, has been courting Azerbaijan to buy
    its gas at international market prices in order to undermine the
    Nabucco project, which aims to bring Central Asian gas to Europe via
    Turkey. Gazprom and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan last week
    signed a memorandum of understanding for long-term supplies of Central
    Asian gas to Russia at market prices, Web site Euractiv.com reported
    yesterday. According to Gazprom's press release, the parties committed
    to massive long-term cooperation after an agreement was reached March
    27 to settle the terms of Azerbaijan's gas sales to Russia.

    Pavel K. Baev, a senior researcher from the Oslo International
    Research Institute, said the project could make Nabucco irrelevant as
    Azerbaijan is seen as the most likely gas supplier for Nabucco. The
    Turkish government is under pressure from the Obama administration to
    finalize and announce the agreement with Yerevan. Turkey and Armenia
    have agreed on most of the wording of a protocol for normalization but
    there are still some points where the two need to agree. The Turkish
    side wants to insert the issue of Nagorno Karabakh in the protocol,
    but the Armenian side has not been compromising on the issue, the
    report says.
Working...
X