Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept.18/ Trend, E.Ismayilov /
Daily gas production in Azerbaijan is at the level of 75 million cubic meters, Azerbaijani Industry and Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said during the 'Oil, Gas and Media' conference in Baku.
He said the main challenges facing the country in the oil and gas sector are meeting the domestic needs for hydrocarbons and increasing the volume of production and discovery of new fields.
An important achievement in the field of discovery in recent years was that in the 'Umid' gas and condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. Gas reserves of the field are estimated at 200 billion cubic meters.
According to Aliyev, the 'Umid' field has over a 30-year stable export potential at an annual production level of six billion cubic meters of gas per year.
Aliyev said that last year the oil production volume in Azerbaijan hit 45.3 million tons, gas - 25.5 billion cubic meters.
So far, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline has exported 204 million tons of oil to the world's markets.
According to Aliyev, the BTC and Baku-Supsa oil pipelines, as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline act as a bridge in the political and economic relations existing between Azerbaijan and the West.
In particular, according to Aliyev, so far more than 24 billion cubic meters of gas has been exported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline with over 20 billion cubic meters being accounted for Turkey.
According to Aliyev, Kazakhstan is interested in oil transportation via the BTC within the second phase of the 'Kashagan' field development.
This will be possible thanks to the establishment of the Trans-Caspian Oil Transport System which is expected to carry 23 million tons of oil per year in the initial phase, then 35 million and more tons of oil per year.