Azerbaijan oil output declines 8% to 15.2 mln metric tons in Jan-June

BAKU, July 12 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan’s oil output was at 15.2 million metric tons between January and June, country’s, energy minister Parviz Shahbazov said on Wednesday on Twitter, a decline of 8% from the year-earlier period.

Production of oil in Azerbaijan has been declining as the output at Azeri–Chirag–Gunashli complex of offshore oilfields, operated by BP, has passed its peak.

The minister also said that 12.7 million metric tons were exported in the first half of the year.

He added that Baku produced 24.1 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas in the first six months of 2023, 5.7 bcm of which it exported to Europe. This was an increase from 23.4 bcm produced in the first half of the year.

Europe has been diversifying its energy imports away from Russia, while Azerbaijan is considered to be one of the alternative sources of oil and gas.

Azeri BTC crude oil exports from Turkey’s Ceyhan port have been set at 19.04 million barrels for August, down from 19.25 million barrels in July, the schedule showed on Friday.