Iran gas deal with Azerbaijan

An Iranian official said that Tehran is planning to finalize the contract of long-term gas imports from Azerbaijan, the local English language Press TV reported on Thursday. Iran and Azerbaijan will finalize a long-term contract for Azerbaijani gas supplies within the next three months, Head of National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) Seyed Reza Kasayeezadeh was quoted as saying. Currently, Iran has a short-term gas supply deal with its northern neighbor which will run out in April this year. On January 13 , Iran struck a short-term agreement to import some 500 million cubic meters of gas per day from neighboring Azerbaijan. The import is aimed to meet the needs of its northern regions which are a long way from the country's own gas fields in the south. "Iran expects to ink another contract to increase the amount of imported gas from Azerbaijan to 2 billion cubic meters per day," Kasayeezadeh said on Wednesday. Azerbaijan and Iran are connected by the Kazi Magomed - Astara gas pipeline, 1 ,474.5 km long. Its capacity is about 10 billion cubic meters per year.