BAKU

Azerbaijan’s oil exports declined while gas exports surged in the first four months of the year after the country started exporting commercial natural gas to Europe from its Shah Deniz II field in December.

The country 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 billion cubic metres (bcm) in the period from January to April,  the State Customs Committee said.

The export of natural gas from Azerbaijan in nominal terms amounted to $1.132 billion, up 37 percent from January-April 2020. According to the Committee, Turkey received 5.146 bcm of gas worth $708 million, Georgia – 1.7 bcm for $227.407 million, Italy – 733.861 million cubic metres for $151 million.

Gas exports amounted to 17.78 percent of Azerbaijan’s total exports in the first four months of 2021.

Azerbaijan exports natural gas from 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.

The country started commercial natural gas supplies to Europe from Shah Deniz II via its $40-billion Southern Gas Corridor in December 2020, when the corridor’s last part, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, was completed. The project is aimed at reducing Europe’s dependence on natural gas supplies from Russia, which currently controls 34 percent of the continent’s gas market.

Azerbaijan aims to supply European gas markets with 10 bcm of gas a year, including 8 bcm to Italy and a combined 2 bcm to Greece and Bulgaria. SOCAR said that gas supplies to Europe were projected at over 5 bcm in 2021. In 2020, Azerbaijan exported 13.396 bcm of gas.

The total value of oil exported during the first four months of this year amounted to $4.353 billion, 9.7 percent less than in the same period last year. The share of oil in the total export structure in January-April amounted to 68.4 percent.

Italy became the largest buyer of oil from Azerbaijan – 5.497 million tonnes for $2.211 billion or 51.2 percent of total oil exports.

Export of oil products rose by 10.7 percent year-on-year to 388,311 tonnes in January-April. In nominal terms export of oil products from Azerbaijan amounted to $163.409 million, up 51.3 percent from January-April 2020. The export of oil products accounted for 2.57 percent of total exports from Azerbaijan.

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

In 2020, Azerbaijan exported 17.878 million tonnes of oil and 2.409 million tonnes of refined products.