BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- It's unlikely that Azerbaijan would send all of its natural gas reserves to a single consumer, a foreign relations expert said from Baku.
Azerbaijan is moving to the front of Russian and European strategies to expand their energy options. Azerbaijan is trying to draw as many energy customers as possible, notes Marcel Vietor, a policy analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations.
"Diversifying energy resources is safer and wiser than selling the entire volume to a single buyer and Azerbaijan is aware of this," he was quoted by the Trend news agency as saying. "I assume that the diversification of some part of Azerbaijani gas through its sale to Europe and Turkey is in the interests of the country."
Russian energy company Gazprom is courting Azerbaijan for access to its natural gas while Europe is banking on Baku to fill the reserve capacity of its planned Nabucco natural gas pipeline.
Vietor said Azerbaijan doesn't have enough gas on hand to meet the entire requirements of any one customer.
"Azerbaijan does not have enough gas that is necessary to fill the Nabucco pipeline fully," he said. "Even it had, Baku likely won't send all of its gas to one direction by the Nabucco pipeline."
