TURKISH MINISTER SAYS GAS DEAL REACHED WITH BAKU
news.az
April 27 2010
Azerbaijan
Taner Yildiz Agreement has been reached with Azerbaijan on gas prices
with ‘almost no’ outstanding issues, according to Turkey’s energy
minister, Taner Yildiz.
He made the remarks yesterday to journalists in the corridors of the
Grand National Assembly.
The minister said that the issue of the transportation of Azerbaijani
gas to Europe through Turkey remained unsettled, however.
‘SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev and I met Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and he agreed to sign a basic agreement with
Azerbaijan,’ the Turkish minister said.
‘There is no need to disclose details. We agreed that we will not
yet disclose the details of these negotiations, but one thing I can
say for sure is that both sides have taken the appropriate steps. The
main objects of discussion were the price of gas from Shah Deniz-1,
the price and volume of gas from Shah Deniz-2, and transportation. We
have reached an agreement on the three issues,’ Taner Yildiz said.
Yildiz said it was planned to include compensation for the price of
gas sold by Azerbaijan to Turkey since the agreement was concluded
in April 2008. ‘Azerbaijan has agreed to this and both sides have
made concessions,’ he said.
The talks on gas prices have been under way since the autumn.
Rovnag Abdullayev, president of Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company, SOCAR,
said at the end of February that Baku was tackling all three gas
issues as a package. ‘Failure to reach agreement in one area affects
the solution of the others,’ he said. Yildiz’s remarks yesterday
imply that the whole package of issues has not yet been agreed.
Taner Yildiz said earlier in March that political considerations were
holding up agreement. ‘I think that there is a problem with Armenia,’
Yildiz said. ‘Even though Turkey says it will not agree to an option
[for rapprochement with Armenia] not approved by Ilham Aliyev, I think
we have not been able to fully explain our position to Azerbaijan.
Therefore, it has not been possible to reach a gas deal yet. But I
think the agreement will be reached.’