(Bloomberg) European buyers are nearing a commercial agreement with Azerbaijan to keep natural gas flowing to the continent after a transit deal between Russia and Ukraine expires at the end of the year.
Companies from Hungary and Slovakia are close to signing a contract for as much as 12-14 billion cubic meters of gas a year from Azerbaijan, according to people with knowledge of the matter. It would use the same pipeline network that now carries Russian gas across Ukraine to the European Union.
The supplies would effectively substitute for shipments that Europe now receives under the transit deal. The contract would need to involve a so-called swap agreement between Azerbaijan and Russia because Azerbaijan doesn’t have enough export capacity to replace the existing supplies.
