Azerbaijani Minister for Energy & Industry, Natik Aliyev stated on 12 October that in 2007 the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) will increase its gas production by 500 million cu m. The Azerbaijan President gave relevant instructions on the full use of the internal potential and SOCAR is working on it. In 2006 it is also planned to increase the production by 500 million cu m of gas compared to last year, Trend reports.
We will use every opportunity to increase the production of gas. There is also a program which will enable us to raise gas production by 2 billion cu m from 2007 at the expense of internal potential, the Minister stressed.
Aliyev also stated that exploration operations are underway and new opportunities are utilized for the development of the fields. The second source of gas for consumption is the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields. Next year it is planned to produce over 5 billion cu m of gas.
Next year 1.4 billion of the associated gas will be given to Azerbaijan. At present the Ministry, together with SOCAR, is working on means of increasing the volume of the associated gas to be given to Azerbaijan at the expense of reducing reverse pumping to the ACG.