Epress.am News from Armenia
Gazprom is interested in purchasing Azerbaijan’s shares in British Petroleum (BP), said Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller.
“We would consider this if there is such an offer,” Miller said in Baku where Gazprom signed a contract to increase purchases of Azeri gas, Reuters reports.
Azerbaijan’s BP assets are the “succulent slice” for Russia. BP is the main shareholder in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline company that exports oil to Turkey, and also has interests in two other major projects in Azerbaijan: It owns a 25.5% stake in the Shah Deniz gas project and a 34.1% stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil project, both in the Caspian Sea.
Yesterday, Gazprom signed an agreement with Azerbaijan’s state-run SOCAR to double purchases of Azeri gas to 2 billion cubic meters per year in 2012 and raise the purchases further starting from 2013, reports Platts.com.
Early this month, the four principal companies in the Shah Deniz consortium — BP, Statoil, Total and the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) — are set to launch gas sale negotiations intended to secure up to $22 billion in financing for the second-stage development of the giant field.
The consortium participants are to begin a series of negotiations with various European companies seeking to import gas by means of the EU-backed Southern Corridor through Turkey, including with companies involved in the NABUCCO project, a source in Shah Deniz consortium told Platts in August.
The planned 31 Bcm/year NABUCCO pipeline from Turkey to Austria is widely seen as a rival route to Russia-backed South Stream pipeline across the Black Sea to Europe.