Azerbaijan can carry out gas "swap" operations with Russia: SOCAR official

Russia can sell gas to Iran without transporting it via Azerbaijan, the company's official said.

"We can deliver [gas] to Iran and Russia can give this to us at other place, supposedly in Europe or Turkey," the source said.

This is profitable for Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan. In this case, each side will gain profit in cutting transport expenses.

"We never were against of projects which use infrastructure of neighbor countries. It is a quite normal process to unite gas systems of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Russia and Iran, so each of these countries will gain benefit while cutting money for transportation," the source said.

Earlier, Russia and Iran signed a memorandum of mutual understanding in the oil and gas field which envisages possibility of implementing gas swap deliveries of Gazprom (Russian gas monopolist) to the north of Iran instead of hydrocarbon deliveries from the south of Iran to the Persian Gulf countries.

/Trend Capital/