Russian state gas company OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) has offered to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan at market price on a long-term supply contract, the company said late Monday.
"Being a a big hydrocarbons producer in CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), Azerbaijan is a natural partner for Russia and we have common interests," Gazprom's Chief Executive Alexei Miller said.
The company didn't mention the size of the volumes it would buy.
Azeri gas is set to become a major source of supplies for the planned European Union-backed Nabucco gas pipeline, which will ship natural gas from Central Asian and the Middle East to Europe.
Russia plans to build competing pipeline called South Stream, which will pump as much as 30 billion cubic meters of Russian gas into the European market.
Gazprom supplies a quarter of Europe's gas needs and supplies gas to Turkey via two pipelines.