Average price of AZERI LT CIF, extracted at Azerbaijan's Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli block of fields, was $74.41 per barrel on April 16-20 or $1.36 per barrel more than the previous week.

The international auditing company Baker Tilly will prepare a report on transparency in the extractive industry of Azerbaijan, for 2017, the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) said in a statement.

OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said on Friday members of the oil producers group were friends of the United States and have a vested interest in its growth and prosperity, Reuters reports.

The level of implementation of the agreement to limit oil production by OPEC and non-OPEC countries in March was a record.

Up to 20 April 2018, Azerbaijan’s Southern Gas Corridor CJSC has invested over $9 billion as part of financing its share in the projects, Trend learned from the CJSC.

India, which hosted the founding summit of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in March 2018, invited Azerbaijan to join the Alliance as a partner country. Although Azerbaijan is not located between the two tropics, it enjoys a large amount of sunlight.

Oil prices were firm on Friday near three-year highs reached earlier this week as ongoing OPEC-led supply cuts gradually drawn down excess supplies, according Reuters.

Plans for future drilling at Azerbaijan’s Absheron gas field in the Caspian Sea after completion of the first well are not frozen yet, an informed source in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas market told Trend.

Oil prices kept rising to their highest since late 2014 as U.S. crude inventories declined, moving closer to five-year averages, and after sources told Reuters that top exporter Saudi Arabia aims to push prices even higher.

The first commercial gas supplies to Europe via the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will begin in March 2020.

Oil prices rose on Thursday to their highest in over three years as U.S. crude inventories declined and as top exporter Saudi Arabia pushes for higher prices by continuing to withhold supplies, Reuters reports.

Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR last year cut emissions of carbon dioxide from its projects to 5.891 million metric tons equivalent, Natural Gas World reported citing SOCAR.

Azerbaijan will be represented at the meeting of the OPEC+ ministerial monitoring committee, to be held on April 20, the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry told Trend on April 18.

The price of OPEC basket of fourteen crudes stood at $68.36 a barrel on April 17, which is less by 0.05 percent compared to the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

Budget revenues of the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) for the period of January-March, 2018 reached 4.4 billion manats ($2.59 billion), while budget expenditures amounted to 2.3 billion manats ($1.35 billion).

As the June meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is drawing closer, the further extension of the production cuts is a hot topic for discussion in the global oil market. Now the question is whether OPEC will prolong the accord.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, lifted by a reported decline in U.S. crude inventories and by the ongoing risk of supply disruptions, Reuters reports.

A joint venture of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR and UK’s Petrofac international service provider to the oil and gas production and processing industry - SOCAR Petrofac passed state registration, Vergiler, the newspaper of Azerbaijan’s Taxes Ministry, reported April 18.

Events in 2017 and 2018 set a positive framework for Azerbaijan's future oil and gas production, Ashley Sherman, Principal Research Analyst – Caspian at Wood Mackenzie told Trend.

SOCAR Turkey Enerji AS, a subsidiary of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR in Turkey, became the owner of a 7 percent stake in the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project, Saltuk Duzyol, head of the TANAP Consortium, said at a press conference in Turkey’s Eskisehir city April 17.

Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) construction project has already been completed by 93 percent.

Oil prices rose on Tuesday amid worries there could be a high risk of disruptions to supply, especially in the Middle East, Reuters reports.

The Southern Gas Corridor project plays an important role in the EU's diversification efforts, European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete said.

Oil prices decline on April 16 during Asian trading, investors are rushing to record profits after the oil market has risen to its maximum since late 2014.

The price of OPEC basket of fourteen crudes stood at $69.29 a barrel on Apr.13, compared with $68.73 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.