Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 16 /Trend, A.Badalova/
Azerbaijan's oil production will increase by 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1 mln bpd in 2012 compared to 0.98 mln bpd in 2011, OPEC's monthly oil market report says.
These figures represent a downward revision of 20,000 bpd from OPEC's previous report.
The downward revision was partially carried over from updates to the 2011 estimate.
During the second half of 2011, Azerbaijan oil supply is estimated at 0.95 mln bpd, a drop of 120,000 bpd compared to the same period of 2010, OPEC's estimates say.
OPEC expects the largest volume of Azerbaijan's production this year in the first quarter - at 1.02 mln bpd. Country's oil production will be 0.99 mln bpd in the second quarter, 0.98 mln bpd in the third quarter, and 1.01 mln bpd in the fourth quarter.
According to OPEC's estimates, oil production in Azerbaijan amounted to 0.94 mln bpd in the fourth quarter of 2011.
According to BP, the proven oil reserves of Azerbaijan amounted to 7 billion barrels as of early 2011. Oil production in the country amounted to 1.037 million bpd in 2010.
The main volume of oil produced in Azerbaijan falls to the offshore field Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli. This area produces Azeri Light oil with a sulfur content of 0.15 percent (35 degrees API).
Participants of the project to develop Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli are: BP (operator - 35.83 percent), Chevron (11.27 percent), Inpex (10.96 percent), AzACG (11.6 percent), Statoil (8.56 percent), Exxon (8 percent), TPAO (6.75 percent), Itocu (4.3 percent) and Hess (2.72 percent).