Azerbaijan May Stop Buying Russian Gas and Cut Oil Exports

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said his country may stop importing Russian natural gas next year because OAO Gazprom, Russia’s gas-export monopoly, wants to more than double prices.

Azerbaijan, the former Soviet Union’s third-largest oil producer, may have to cut crude exports through Russia to fill the resulting domestic energy gap, Aliyev said in an interview today with radio station Echo of Moscow.