Iran's oil minister and OPEC President Seyed Masoud Mirkazemi arrived in Azerbaijan on Wednesday to sign a long-term contract for import of up to 5 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas to Iran annually.
The two sides will also discuss joint energy projects and oil and gas deals, and the exchange of electric energy, a spokesman for the Iranian embassy in Azerbaijan said.
In 2005 Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened a gas pipeline from Iran to Azerbaijan's Nakhichevan Autonomous Region, which is separated from the Azerbaijani mainland by a strip of Armenian territory.
Direct gas supplies to Nakhichevan from Azerbaijan have been cut off since the Nagorno-Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Currently Iran imports 1 million cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan, delivering it to the Nakhchivan Republic under a 25-year swap deal.
BAKU, January 12 (RIA Novosti)
