Azerbaijan: neither visa-free regime, nor gas supply

Two expected agreements between Azerbaijan and its neighbors likely will not be implemented.

State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) will not implement the plan on gas supply to Iran since January 1 2010, company’s president Rovnag Abdullayev announced according to Vesti.Az Agency.

He said the construction works weren’t yet finished. “As soon as the construction works finished, we’ll start the gas supply up to 5 million m3 of gas daily,” said Abdullayev. He didn’t mention any date; anyway, this is not expected to be implemented by January 1.

The agreement between Azerbaijan, represented by State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, and Iran, represented by National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC), was signed when Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov paid a visit to Tehran in mid-December.

Another failed contract was an agreement on free visa entry between Azerbaijan and Turkey. On his working visit to Turkey, Elmar Mamedyarov said “the countries will continue negotiations.”

He said “there are some internal procedures which need to be agreed”, “we are still negotiating.”
A spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry Elkhan Polukhov said the “relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey remain on a very high level, the positions on many world and regional matters go with each other.”