Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR swapped 167.3 million cubic meters of gas with Iran in January-September 2016, said Rahman Gurbanov, SOCAR vice president for oil and gas transportation and gas facilities, in his interview published by Natural Gas World Nov. 2.

 “Iran takes 15 percent of the received Azerbaijani gas as swap fee and delivers the remaining volume to Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic with which it shares a border,” added Gurbanov.

SOCAR exported 1.363 billion cubic meters of gas to Georgia in 2015.

Georgia also additionally receives about 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year produced at Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field with participation of SOCAR and foreign companies.

Deliveries to Iran are carried out in order to send gas to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR), located in the blockade because of the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia.

About 287 million cubic meters of gas was delivered from Azerbaijan to Iran in 2015 for the needs of NAR.

Azerbaijan and Iran are connected with the Gazi-Magomed-Astara-Bind-Biand gas pipeline.

(Source: Trends)