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Azerbaijan, Russia dispute gas prices

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Azerbaijan has refused to buy natural gas from Russia if its prices remain at $235 per 1,000 cubic meters, Azerbaijan's state oil company said Tuesday.

"Why does Russia sell gas to Ukraine at $130, to Armenia at $110 and we have to buy it at $235 per 1,000 cubic meters?" asked President Rovnag Abdullayev of the State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan.

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Azerbaijan is importing Russian natural gas at $110 per 1,000 cubic meters, the Russian Information Agency Novosti reported. The republic produces 4 billion to 5 billion cubic meters of gas, but it needs 14 billion cubic meters a year for its population, it said.

Russian energy giant Gazprom said Tuesday it had not heard how much gas Azerbaijan wanted at the 2007 price -- so it considered this lack of response as a refusal to buy, the news agency said.

The news comes as Gazprom gave a financial concession to Belarus on natural gas supplies, making it easier for that ex-Soviet bloc country to buy gas in 2007.

Gazprom is Russia's largest company and the biggest extractor of natural gas in the world.

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