Gazprom would like to buy British Petroleum in Azerbaijan

Russian gas monopoly Gazprom is interested in buying shares of the British Petroleum in Azerbaijan, Gazprom's chief Alexei Miller said in Baku in the framework of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Azerbaijan.

According to Miller Gazprom would with great pleasure buy some of the shares if they were on sell.

BP is operating the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline which is the only one in the post-Soviet area that carries the Azerbaijani oil to the Turkish Ceyhan via Georgia.

A total of 35 million tons of crude is being pumped through this pipeline. That makes 1 per cent of the global oil output.

"If the Russian side buys BP's shares, export of the Azerbaijani gas and oil to Europe will be questioned," reports TVN24 Polish television channel.