Azerbaijan, Russia resume energy talks in Baku

The Vice-President of Azerenergy, Marlen Asgarov, a negotiator, told APA-Economics that the delegation has came "with a new package of proposals" but declined to give details because of the ongoing meeting.

Prior to this, the Moscow negotiations on electricity imports and exports between Azerenergy and RAO UES yielded no result for the parties. It was agreed to hold another meeting in Baku.

Azerbaijan and Russia broke off mutual electricity sales relations since April 1 amid a dispute over the prices while they are currently exchanging electricity under a barter contract and the party returns the same amount of energy within 24 hours without any payment.

Azerbaijan said it would resume the electricity imports if Russia agrees to sell at a favorable price.

As per the expired agreement inked on January 15, Azerbaijan was importing 200 to 250 megawatts of electricity (some 1bn kilowatt a year) in peak consumption hours at a price of 3.636 cents per kilowatt, close to 3.6 cents in 2006. The agreement was for the full year with the possibility of extension while the prices were for the first quarter.

Azerbaijan also raised the price of electricity being sent to Russia at nights to 1.8 cents from 1.58 per kilowatt.
Azerbaijan imported 0.7bn kilowatts of Russian electricity in 2006. The parties failed to agree on a fixed price after haggling long.

Azerbaijan also refused to buy high-priced gas from Russia in January.