Azerbaijan cuts oil exports 3.3% in Q1, gas up 1.3%

Azerbaijan exported 8.146 million tonnes of oil in Q1 2016, 3.3% less than in the same period last year, the State Customs Committee told Interfax.


The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline carried 6.899 million tonnes of oil, according to metering data, including 626,129 tonnes of gas condensate from the Shah Deniz field and 1.107 million tonnes on the Baku-Supsa pipeline and 79,957 tonnes of oil on the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline. Another 59,848 tonnes of oil was shipped by rail to Georgian ports.


Oil declared for export amounted to 5.437 million tonnes for $1.353 billion.


Azerbaijan also exported 422,694 tonnes of petroleum products for $85.237 million in January-March.


Gas exports rose to 2.459 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in Q1, 1.3% more than in the same period last year.


This included 597.61 million cubic meters (mcm) for $95.413 million cleared under simplified customs declarations.


Currently State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) exports Azerbaijani gas to Iran and Georgia, and also the consortium for the Shah Deniz project exports gas via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline to Georgia and Turkey.


According to the State Statistics Committee, exports of Azerbaijani gas from the Shah Deniz field as part of Stage one in January-March of this year rose by 6.9% to 1.925 bcm.


In total, Azerbaijan's trunk gas pipelines transported 5.762 bcm of gas in January-March, which is 8.4% lower year-on-year.

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