KYIV, Nov 4 – Companies from Hungary and Slovakia are close to signing a contract for as much as 12-14 billion cubic meters of gas a year from Azerbaijan, Bloomberg reports with reference to people with knowledge of the matter.

"It would use the same pipeline network that now carries Russian gas across Ukraine to the European Union," it reads.

"The supplies would effectively substitute for shipments that Europe now receives under the transit deal. The contract would need to involve a so-called swap agreement between Azerbaijan and Russia because Azerbaijan doesn’t have enough export capacity to replace the existing supplies," the report says.