RUSSIA OFFERS AZERBAIJAN PREFERENTIAL PIPELINE TARIFFS.

Russia’s Transneft company and Azerbaijani negotiators signed September 4 in Moscow a protocol recording transit fees for Azeri oil if it were pumped through pipelines to Russia’s Black Sea port Novorossiisk, the Petroleum Information Agency reported September 4. The Russian side admitted that the tariffs would be higher than those charged elswhere in Russia, but claimed that they would be still lower on balance than those to be charged by Georgia if Azerbaijan chose that route for pumping its oil to the Black Sea. The Azeri side stressed that any decision would be made jointly with the international oil consortium.A final decision regarding the "early" oil, due on stream in late 1996, is to be reached at a series of upcoming meetings in London, Houston, Baku, and Moscow; but the Georgian-Turkish option appears to be gaining over the Russian one, mainly on economic efficiency grounds.

Clashes Inside Tajikistan.