Energy policy of Russia and in a few cases explicit political demands are evident. Starting 1 January 2007 Gazprom increased the price of natural gas to Azerbaijan from US$110 to $235 per thousand cubic metres. (At the time, Gazprom charged the EU US$250.) Azerbaijan refused to pay this price and the gas supply to Azerbaijan stopped. On its side, Azerbaijan stopped oil exports to and via Russia. A year earlier, pro-Russian Armenia was hit with the same 100% price increase as Western-oriented Georgia, Vladimir Socor has observed. The Russia-Belarus energy dispute began when Russian state-owned gas supplier Gazprom demanded an increase in gas prices
Gazprom Neft Messoyakhaneftegas, an equally owned joint venture with TNK-BP, holds the licenses for both blocks with Gazprom Neft as operator. The recoverable C1+C2 reserves of both blocks total 620 million tonnes of primarily heavy oil. The fields were discovered in the 1980s and are the most northern-located onshore Russian fields. The Messoyakha oil and gas fields are located on the Gydan Peninsula in the Tazovsky District of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area - an Arctic climate zone with undeveloped infrastructure. By 2020 the Messoyakha fields are expected to be producing 8 mln tonnes per year with the first million produced by 2016.