Azeri, Turkish Presidents sign gas sale deal

President Aliyev left for Turkey on an official visit Monday. The visit is expected to last five days.

At the Esenboga airport of Ankara, the head of state was welcomed by Turkish state minister for Turkic nations Abdulhaliq Cay. Then, President Aliyev was escorted to the Cankaya residence, where he met with Turkish President Sezer. The two focused on issues pertaining to the solution to the Garabagh conflict.

Following the meeting, President Sezer said the Garabagh dispute is the problem Turkey is eagerly watching and deeply concerned with.

On the same day, the Azeri and Turkish Presidents signed 9 bilateral agreements, including a key document to sell Azeri gas from the Shah Daniz field in the Azeri sector of the Caspian to Turkey. According to the agreement, Turkey will buy several billion cubic meters of Azeri gas each year starting in 2004.

During the signing ceremony, President Aliyev voiced a hope that the volume of gas to be sold to Turkey would eventually reach as much as 20 billion cubic meters a year. “We have an old gas pipeline, which will be employed to transport gas through the Georgian border”, President Aliyev said.

According to the Turkish minister for energy and natural resources Cumhur Ersumer, natural gas from the Shah Daniz prospect will be the cheapest gas hitherto purchased by Turkey. “The most expensive gas will come from Iran, while the cheapest from Azerbaijan”, he said.

The Minister went on saying that Turkey is to pay $2.5 billion for gas to be bought for 15 years. According to the agreement, the first 2 billion cubic meters of gas are expected to arrive in 2004. The volume of gas exported from Azerbaijan will rise to 6.6 billion cubic meters a year in 2007.*