OREANDA-NEWS  Azerbaijan does not plan to buy gas from Russia and Turkmenistan in 2019. This was reported on Monday by the representative of the state oil company of the country on public relations Ibrahim Akhmedov to the media by phone.

"According to the current plans of the company, we do not plan to import gas from Russia next year," said the representative of state oil company of the country. At the same time, he explained that several hundred million cubic meters, which remained to be purchased in Russia under the annual contract signed at the end of 2017, will be received in the coming months. "The signing of the contract for the supply of additional volumes of gas from Russia is not considered. In the same way from Turkmenistan," Akhmedov added.

He stressed that Azerbaijan imported the main volumes of gas from Russia. "Most of it was in the summer months. This gas was pumped into gas storage facilities and used for export, processing and other purposes. Thus, we realized the commercial potential of our gas storage facilities", - said the representative of state oil company of the country.

"Now we have already pumped more than 3 billion cubic meters of gas into the gas storage, which is more than in previous years. Production of own gas is also growing. Accordingly, the amount of Azerbaijani gas sent to gas storage facilities will increase. Therefore, the need for imports disappears, and we already knew that next year we will most likely not import gas," said the representative of state oil company of the country.

In November 2017, Gazprom export and state oil company of the country signed a contract for the supply of gas to Azerbaijan. Deliveries began on 22 November 2017. In total, within the framework of the annual contract, it is planned to supply 1.6 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Azerbaijan.