Azernews.Az

By Sara Israfilbayova

Presence of different gas and oil supply routes allows Azerbaijan to expand fuel sales volumes in various directions and reduce dependence on one direction, to ensure the country’s energy security.

Diversification of gas and oil supplies is part of the state energy policy of the country.

Thus, Azerbaijan exported 6.894 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the amount of $1.156 billion in January-November of this year.

During the reporting period, natural gas exports increased by 11.5 percent year-on-year, and costs by 25 percent.

The export of natural gas accounted for 9.25 percent of total exports for 11 months of the year.

Azerbaijan has a large number of oil and gas fields and promising structures in the Caspian Sea. One of them is the block of oil and gas fields “Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli” (ACG), proven oil reserves of which are estimated at 1.2 billion tons, while gas reserves-350 billion cubic meters.

Another large field is the Shah Deniz gas condensate field, reserves of which are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. Within the second stage of field development, the volume of gas production can be increased to 24 billion cubic meters per year, according to forecasts.

There are also such deposits as Absheron (350 billion cubic meters), Umid (200 billion cubic meters), and the promising structure of Babek (400 billion cubic meters).

Azerbaijani gas is currently exported directly by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan SOCAR to Iran and Georgia, and by the Shah-Deniz consortium via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline to Georgia and Turkey.

During this period, the country exported 733,340 tons of oil products in the amount of $291.262 million.

The share of oil products in the total export structure was 2.33 percent.

Oil from Azerbaijan is exported by the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline , Baku–Supsa Pipeline and Baku–Novorossiysk pipeline and by rail. By rail, Azerbaijan exports ExxonMobil oil, which has 8 percent of the share in the ACG oil and gas field development project.

The overwhelming part of oil produced in Azerbaijan falls on ACG block. Almost all oil from the block is exported by the BTC.

Azerbaijan's oil is exported from the country not only in raw form, but also in the form of oil products. The country’s only oil producer is SOCAR.

Azerbaijan’s oil products are exported to such countries as Turkey, Georgia, Italy, Egypt, Greece, Lebanon, Singapore, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Malta, Libya, Romania, China, Spain, Bahamas and others.

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