BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 30. The Azneft Production Union, belonging to the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), has made a personnel reshuffle in its management this week, Trend reports.
Shahmar Huseynov was dismissed from the post of general director and appointed as an advisor to the president of SOCAR, and 56-year-old Ali Gurbanov, who previously headed the Umid Babek field block operating company's representative office, was appointed new head of Azneft.
The effective work of the Azneft Production Union and other structures of the fuel and energy complex is also important for preparing the energy balance of Azerbaijan, and the methodology for compiling the energy balance and reports was the main discussion topic at the board meeting of Azerbaijan's Energy Ministry held under the chairmanship of Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov on March 28.
Azerbaijan's Energy Ministry also informed about establishment of a technical committee in the sphere of electric power and renewable energy sources
to ensure the participation of stakeholders in the creation of a regulatory documentation base in such areas as the formation of a competitive environment in the electricity market, ensuring the efficient operation of electric power industry entities, stimulating the use of renewables in electricity generation, efficient use of energy resources, and ensuring energy efficiency.
Azerbaijan's energy resources form the basis of the country's exports and play an important role in replenishing the state budget.
Thus, the data of State Customs Committee (SCC) of Azerbaijan showed this week that the country exported 82,400 tons of methanol from January through February 2024, which is 10 percent more than January through February 2023, and the country's revenue from methanol exports amounted to $15.7 million.
The SCC data also showed that in the reporting period, Azerbaijan exported over 68,079 tons of crude oil and petroleum products to Türkiye, totaling $36.069 million.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan exported over 76,534 tons of crude oil and petroleum products to Spain, which accounts for 1.66 percent of the total volume of raw material exports, bringing revenue of $39.88 million.
Overall, Azerbaijan's oil was purchased by more than 10 countries, and this oil is delivered to the global market via the strategic Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.
This week, the Turkish BOTAS International Limited company (BIL - operator of the Turkish segment of the BTC pipeline) announced that in the first two months of this year, oil exports via BTC amounted to 35.96 million barrels, which is 2.6 percent higher than the figure for the same period in 2023.
An important source of revenue for Azerbaijan is also the export of gas. It was announced this week that in the mentioned period, Georgia bought Azerbaijani gas for $62.6 million, and this gas was supplied through contracts via two gas pipeline systems - the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) and the Gazimagomed-Gazakh pipeline.
The Energy Market Regulatory Authority of Türkiye (EPDK) reported this week that natural gas exports to Türkiye from Azerbaijan decreased by 0.47 percent in January 2024 compared to the same month in 2023, from 881.85 million cubic meters to 877.74 million cubic meters. However, Azerbaijan ranked second in terms of volume of pipeline gas exports to Türkiye during the reporting month after Russia.
The Globuc international company has decided to hold the 11th conference on oil refining in Central Asia (CA) and the Caspian region in Astana on September 18-19.
Against this backdrop, the authoritative international consultant Wood Mackenzie's presenting its analysis of the operations of 465 oil refineries worldwide was notable.
According to Wood Mackenzie, a part of refineries in Europe and China may be shutdown due to a decrease in their profitability.
However, this fate won't affect the STAR refinery in Türkiye (a SOCAR asset). This week, EPDK said that in January of this year, the STAR refinery produced 176,025 tons of crude oil (raw material for the Petkim holding - another SOCAR asset in Türkiye), compared to 151,123 tons for the same period in 2023, 103,497 tons of aviation fuel (44,824 tons in January 2023), 16,049 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) compared to 14,868 tons in January 2023, and 31,090 tons of heavy vacuum gas oil (6.7 times more than in January 2023).
The production volume of petroleum coke decreased to 65,761 tons, and diesel fuel by nine percent to 581,804 tons partly due to the fact that in January, the STAR refinery received 2.8 percent less oil - at the level of 939,838 tons.
An informed source exclusively said this week that SOCAR Petroleum SA (a Romanian subsidiary of SOCAR) failed to win the international tender on building a bitumen terminal in the Romanian port of Constanta on the territory of Oil Terminal SA.
The tender evaluation panel has chosen Euronova Energies, already having work experience in the above port, from seven applicant businesses.
A source at the Bulgarian Ministry of Energy noted that SOCAR's business may be expanded in Bulgaria, neighboring Romania.
According to the source, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan are strongly committed to promoting strategic partnership, especially in energy, and convinced that the joint efforts in the field of research, development and application of hydrogen technologies could not only contribute to energy security, but also contribute to global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
This week, Vice President of Shell Energy Jefferson Edwards said that natural gas is crucial for energy security and transition, but its long-term significance depends on efforts to reduce emissions and develop clean technology.
Azerbaijan has been supplying gas to the EU since December 2020, and its main buyer is Italy.
Additionally, this week TAP AG consortium, operator of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, revealed that the volume of transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Italy via the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP, the European section of the Southern Gas Corridor), since December 31, 2020 until the end of March 2024, reached 28.3 billion cubic meters, and in the first quarter of 2024 - 2.4 billion cubic meters of gas.