Rovnag Abdullayev, president of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), says that this scheme is useful given that Iran encounters problems with gas supplies to its northern regions in winter.

"For the needs of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR) of Azerbaijan SOCAR is forced to supply, within the existing swap supplies, additional volumes of gas to northern regions of Iran. However, our gas opportunities are limited, so we held talks with Iran and offered to pump during the summer period Iranian gas in our gas storages in volumes necessary to provide the north of the country in the winter time," Abdullayev said.

As part of swap supplies Azerbaijan delivers 1.3 million cu m of gas a day to Iran through Astara, and Iran supplies about 1 million cu m a day to Nakhchivan.