Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that the trilateral meeting of energy ministers in Tbilisi will clarify whether Turkey was willing to help Georgia with its winter gas problems, reads one of the WikiLeaks-published secret cables, the Guardian reported. At the meeting with the U.S. Ambassador, Azerbaijani leader “accused BP for linking commercial issues to the current gas problems, and reported that “nothing had changed” in Azerbaijan’s gas negotiations with Russia during Russia PM Fradkov’s visit to Baku”.

Aliyev said that BP could deliver more associated gas from the Azeri-Cirag-Gunesli (ACG) field to Azerbaijan for domestic use, but that it was linking its cooperation in this regard with its desire to extend its Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with Azerbaijan to develop ACG deep gas. According to him, BP was using blackmail.  “If BP won’t give us more ACG associated gas, I have instructed our officials to tell them no PSA extensions or ACG deep gas,” he said.

“Aliyev concluded by saying that if Turkey agreed to redistribute its 2007 Shah Deniz gas that “would almost be the way out,” but that then Azerbaijan would still need BP support in both redistributing this Shah Deniz gas and also in giving Azerbaijan more ACG associated gas.

The President also mused that “we could cut the gas supply to Turkey” if need be. The Ambassador pointed out that this would be an extreme measure with serious repercussions. She asked Aliyev if he knew the reasons for Turkish truculence concerning gas redistribution. He said he did not, but suspected it could be monetary, i.e. buying gas at USD 120 per mcm and selling it at USD 230,” the document reads.