Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 12 / Trend A.Badalova /
Azerbaijan's oil production will decrease by 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 0.86 million barrels bps in 2013, OPEC's February oil market report published on Tuesday said.
This figure represents a downward revision of 10,000 bps from the previous forecasts. The revision has come on the back of an adjustment to the estimate for the fourth quarter of 2012 and has affected the 2013 forecast.
According to OPEC's forecasts, the highest level of Azerbaijan's oil production in 2013 will be observed in the first quarter - at 0.89 million bpd. In the second and third quarters of this year production will amount to 0.85million bpd, in the fourth quarter - at 0.87 million bpd.
According to BP, the proven oil reserves of Azerbaijan amounted to 7 billion barrels as of early 2012. Oil production in the country amounted to 0.931 million bpd in 2011.
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).