Azernews.Az

BAKU – Production of about 50 million tons of oil per year is enough for Azerbaijan, head of the state energy firm Socar has said.

"Generally speaking, output exceeding 50m tons of oil is not required for the Azerbaijani economy, therefore, the reduction in production volumes by 2-5 percent or even 10 percent is not a matter of concern," Rovnag Abdullayev said. "This oil can be extracted any time."

According to Abdullayev, the 4.1 pct decrease in the country’s oil production in January-April 2011 was mainly due to reduced output from the major Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block in the Caspian Sea.

"This reduction is a carry-over of past years," the Socar president said. "As is known, in 2008 gas leaks were revealed at the Azeri field, whose main reasons have not been established to date. After that we further increased our attention to safety regulations and began to exercise more caution during oil and gas operations."

Abdullayev said that particularly after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a number of energy projects in Azerbaijan have been reviewed in terms of safety, and the issue of upgrading the existing drilling rigs has been raised.

"As a result, the program on drilling new wells at ACG has been significantly delayed, which led to a reduction in oil production volumes," Abdullayev said.

The Azerbaijani government predicts the country’s oil production in 2011 at 51.5m tons and gas output at 29.1 billion cubic meters.