Russia may send its natural gas to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the long term, either using the infrastructure of Central Asia or by organizing swap supplies from the territory of Iran, TASS news agency reported on Monday, citing the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak as saying during the interview.
Novak also informed that Russia is discussing an increase in gas supplies for the domestic markets of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan amid their increasing consumption of this fuel.
In addition, Novak said Russia has agreed with Azerbaijan to increase the supply of gas for domestic consumption, and in the future may discuss swap supplies.
Earlier Novak stated that Russia and Iran are working on swap supplies of oil and gas and are already working on routes and mechanisms for this. According to him, at the first stage it could be the supply of 5 million tons of oil and up to 10 billion cubic meters of gas.
Minister of State for Petroleum of Pakistan Musadiq Malik reported in early December that the country had agreed for the supply of oil, gasoline and diesel fuel from Russia. Malik noted that Russia is very interested in supplying pipeline gas to Pakistan and has already begun negotiations with Islamabad on two projects – the construction of the Pakistan Stream gas pipeline and the construction of another large pipeline to transport gas.
