Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend / From January to April 2008, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), Operating Companies (OC) and Joint Ventures (JV) produced 21.2mln barrels of oil (2.9mln tons) from onshore and offshore fields of the country, which is 200,000 barrels less than the same period in 2006.
During this period, the oil and gas production units (OGPU) of SOCAR produced a total of 18.2 tons of oil (2.5mln tons), or 140,000 barrels less than 2007. In this period, foreign companies within the joint ventures (JV) and operating companies (OC) produced 3mln barrels of oil (412,000 tons), which is 80,000 barrels less than the production in 2007.
In accordance with the forecast, this year SOCAR, JV and OC will produce 64mln barrels (8.7mln tons) of oil. Some 55mln barrels of this volume (7.4mln tons) falls on the OGPUs of SOCAR and 9mln barrels (1.3mln tons) on JV. and OCs.
In January to April the oil and gas production units of SOCAR produced 2.5bln cu m of gas, or 753mln cu m more compared to same period of 2007. JVs and OCs produced 40.5mln cu m of gas in this period, or 14.4mln cu m less than in the same period of 2007.
During this period the Azerbaijan International operating Company (AIOC) produced 548.4mln cu m of associated gas from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field, or 428.7mln cu m less as compared to 2006.
In accordance with the forecast, this year OGPU of SOCAR will produce 7,850nln cu m of natural gas and, JV and OC - 150mln cu m of gas. Azerbaijan will lift 2.9bln cu m of gas from the Shah Deniz field. This year AIOC will give to Azerbaijan 1.4bln cu m of gas.
There are fifty-seven oil and gas fields in Azerbaijan, including eighteen offshore. SOCAR staff consists of 63,000 employees.
Oil and gas production from January to April 2008:
| Oil (ths. tons) | April | January to April | ||
| 2008 | 2008 | 2007 | % | |
| Total | 715,99 | 2884,22 | 2913,37 | 99,0 |
| OGPUs of SOCAR | 611,93 | 2471,97 | 2490,88 | 99,2 |
| JV and OC | 104,06 | 412,25 | 422,49 | 97,6 |
| Gas(in mln cu m) | ||||
| Total | 631,50 | 2539,65 | 1786,34 | 142,2 |
| OGPUs of SOCAR | 622,63 | 2499,09 | 1731,35 | 144,3 |
| JV and OC | 8,87 | 40,56 | 54,99 | 73,8 |