Gazprom will buy 1 billion cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan this year and around 2 bcm in 2011, the Russian gas monopoly said Thursday.
The announcement came after a meeting earlier on Thursday in Moscow between Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Rovnag Abdullayev, president of Azerbaijan's state oil company.
Miller stressed that the current contract placed no caps on gas purchases from Azerbaijan and reiterated Gazprom's readiness to buy as much gas as the Azerbaijani company could deliver.
Russia agreed in October to buy at least 500 million cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas this year, and deliveries started on January 1.
The contract has raised concerns in Europe, where Azerbaijan is seen as a potential contributor to Nabucco, which is seen as rival to the planned Russian South Stream pipeline.
Backed by several EU countries and the United States, Nabucco aims to pipe gas from Turkey to Austria, diversifying current natural gas suppliers and delivery routes for Europe and lessening European dependence on Russian energy.
The issue was part of discussions between U.S. special energy envoy Richard Morningstar and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and other state and government officials at meetings last Friday in Baku.
MOSCOW, January 21 (RIA Novosti)
