BAKU

Azerbaijan reduced oil and gas condensate production by 7.2 percent year-on-year to 11.559 million tonnes and increased natural gas output by 2.7 percent to 13.766 billion cubic metres (bcm) in the first quarter of 2021, the State Statistics Committee said.

The volume of marketable oil was 11.538 million tonnes in the first four months of 2021, 6.9 percent down from the same period last year. The production of commercial gas amounted to 10.291 bcm, 9.3 percent up from January-April 2020.

The bulk of Azerbaijan’s oil output comes from its major Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oilfields, operated by British oil major BP. The country uses the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline via Georgia and Turkey to export oil from the ACG. It also exports oil with the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline via Russia, the Baku-Supsa pipeline via Georgia and by rail in Georgia.

Azerbaijan mainly produces natural gas at its giant Shah Deniz field. The BP-led consortium, which develops the Shah Deniz project, has been pumping gas from the offshore field’s first phase since 2006, delivering more than 10 bcm a year of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The second phase started output in 2018, adding 16 bcm of gas production capacity at its peak to bring total capacity to 26 bcm.

There are other oil and gas fields in the country, although their output is mainly used for domestic consumption.

The State Customs Committee said earlier this week that Azerbaijan reduced oil exports by 9.3 percent year-on-year to 10.738 million tonnes and increased exports of natural gas by 79.5 percent to 7.838 bcm in the period from January to April.

In 2020, Azerbaijan produced 34.585 million tonnes of oil and gas condensate, while natural gas output was 36.713 bcm.  The country exported 17.878 million tonnes of oil and 13.396 bcm of gas.

The production of oil products in Azerbaijan in monetary terms declined by 1.4 percent year-on-year to 1.2 billion manats ($706 million) in January-April this year.

Refined products are produced at the Heydar Aliyev refinery.

The Statistics Committee said that the growth was recorded in the production of straight-run gasoline (naphtha) by 35 percent year-on-year to 137,200 tonnes, diesel fuel – by 6 percent to 776,800 tonnes, lubricating oils – 1.9 times to 17,600 tonnes, petroleum coke – by 13.8 percent to 87,500 tonnes.