BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Azerbaijan's state energy company said Wednesday natural gas deliveries to Russia were disrupted because of maintenance issues.
The State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic said it was unsure when the gas deliveries would resume after repair work began at border installations, the company told the region's Trend news agency.
A 2010 natural gas contract between both parties calls on Azerbaijan to deliver more than 70 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year, though Trend reports Azerbaijan was short of that last year.
Azerbaijan is one of the world's largest producers of natural gas. Its Shah Deniz field, discovered in the Caspian Sea in 1999, should have a peak production rate of more than 600 billion cubic feet per year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.
Last week, Russian oil company Transneft said it would suspend deliveries through the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline because Azerbaijan hadn't signed the necessary agreements for oil transit.
A bilateral deal between SOCAR and Russia for Russian oil transits through Azeri territory was terminated in May.
