Azerbaijan plans to produce more gas in 2017

Aliyev said that the country plans to increase gross gas output by 0.8 percent to 29.561 billion cubic meters in 2017.

"That follows a decline of 0.6 percent year-on-year to 29.331 billion cubic meters in 2016,” noted the minister, adding that some 18.714 billion cubic meters out of this amount accounted for commercial gas, a 3.9 percent decline from 2015, as more gas was needed for re-injection at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oil fields to maintain crude oil production.

"Gas stored in underground facilities reached 1.167 billion cubic meters as of January 1,” he added.

According to a combination of official statistics and NGW’s survey, the country’s total gas export also stood at 7.78 billion cubic meters, so 625 million cubic meters less than 2015.

Aliyev said that it is expected to produce more than 10 billion cubic meters of gas from the Shah Deniz field in 2017, as compared to 9.9 billion cubic meters in 2016.

Azerbaijan is fully committed to its obligation on reducing oil output under the deal with OPEC and the country has reduced oil output by 35,000 barrels per day since Jan. 1, Aliyev said.

He noted that the country’s total oil production was 789,000 barrels per day in Jan. 1-20 in line with this pledge.

The minister added that the oil price in January increased by $25 per barrel year-on-year and this favors all producers.

"Azerbaijan can cut oil output even more if other producers decide to shrink the production level to support prices,” he said.

During a meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Nov. 30, 2016, OPEC members decided to implement a new production target of 32.5 million barrels per day. Later, non-OPEC countries agreed to cut the output by 558,000 barrels per day during the meeting held Dec. 10, 2016.

Eleven non-OPEC countries – Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, Sudan, and South Sudan – agreed to reduce the oil output.

OPEC and non-OPEC countries pledged to start implementing the deal from Jan. 1, 2017 for six months, extendable for another six months.

According to Azerbaijan’s State Statistics Committee, 41.03 million tons of oil and gas condensate were produced in the country in 2016, that is, 1.5 percent less than in 2015.

Tank gas output totaled 18.71 billion cubic meters in Azerbaijan in 2016, or 3.9 percent less than in 2015.