Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan's oil production to increase by 20,000 barrels per day to 0.99 million barrels per day (mln bpd) in 2012, OPEC's monthly oil market report says.

Last month OPEC predicted the country's oil production at 1 mln bpd.

OPEC says that the revision came on the back of a historical adjustment to the fourth-quarter of 2011 estimate and affected the 2012 forecast.

According to OPEC's estimates, Azerbaijan's oil production amounted to 0.89 mln bpd in the fourth quarter of 2011.

OPEC expects the largest volume of Azerbaijan's production this year in the first quarter and fourth quarters - at 1 mln bpd. Country's oil production will be 0.97 mln bpd in the second quarter, 0.98 mln bpd in the third quarter.

According to BP, the proven oil reserves of Azerbaijan amounted to 7 billion barrels as of early 2011. Oil production in the country amounted to 1.037 million bpd in 2010.

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).