Russia eyes gas agreement with Baku after Medvedev trip

As Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wrapped up his first official trip to Baku last week a Gazprom official reiterated that Russia is looking to purchase large amounts of Azerbaijani natural gas.

Medvedev and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev signed a declaration of friendship on July 3 and agreed to begin talks on energy issues. “There’s a good chance for new agreements on trading hydrocarbons,” Medvedev said.

Gazprom senior official Alexei Miller, who accompanied Medvedev on the trip, said the company was hoping to buy Azerbaijani gas.

“Azerbaijan will become another country where Gazprom can buy gas while just few years ago, our [Russian] gas was purchased by Azerbaijan,” Miller said, according to Eurasia.net.

He also reiterated that Russia was willing to purchase a “maximum volume” of Azerbaijani gas at market prices.

Analysts say that in moving to buy up a large amount of Azerbaijani gas, Gazprom is attempting to increase Russia’s grip on the European energy market.

Azerbaijan is involved in projects like the Nabucco pipeline which aim to take Central Asian gas to Europe, circumventing Russia.