BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 25. Azerbaijan’s oil production in 2022 is expected at 0.72 million barrels per day, Trend reports, citing S&P Global Ratings.
According to the agency, Azerbaijan’s oil production proceeded with a decline of about 4.5 percent year-on-year over the first four months of the current year.
“We understand that this has been spurred by natural reductions in output as oil fields age but also some technical and possibly temporary factors. As a result, Azerbaijan's production has been below its OPEC+ quotas for the past few months. We forecast the country's oil production will remain at 0.72 million barrels per day on average in 2022 and about that level over 2023-2025,” the report said.
As S&P noted, Azerbaijan is “significantly dependent on the hydrocarbon sector, which is currently benefiting from favorable global oil prices”.
“We now project that favorable terms of trade will persist for Azerbaijan over the rest of 2022 and in 2023. We expect that the Brent oil price will average $102 per barrel in 2022, $85 per barrel in 2023, and $55 per barrel in 2024-2025. In parallel, the OPEC+ group of countries (of which Azerbaijan is a member) has continued to taper back oil production quotas, in line with the agreement reached in July 2021,” the agency added.
Meanwhile, S&P Global has affirmed its 'BB+/B' long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Azerbaijan with a stable outlook.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @mariiiakhm