Azernews.Az

By Gulgiz Dadashova

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reported that Azerbaijan's oil supply is anticipated to decrease by 40tb/d in 2013 to average 0.85 mb /d, which is unchanged from the previous month's forecasts.

In its Monthly Oil-Market Report for June, OPEC said that despite the steady state, there were upward and downward revisions on quarterly basis that offset each other.

"First quarter oil supply encountered a downward revision to adjust for updated production data while the rest of the year encountered a minor upward revision," the report says.

According to OPEC's forecasts, Azerbaijan's oil production will amount to 0.85 million bpd in the second quarter, 0.84 million bpd in the third quarter and 0.86 million bpd in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Azerbaijan's proven oil reserves amounted to 7 billion barrels as of early 2012.

The main volume of oil produced in Azerbaijan falls on Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli offshore fields block. This block produces Azeri Light oil with a sulfur content of 0.15 percent (35 degrees API).

The operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) field, which is aiming to stabilize the field's output at around 650tb/d to 700tb/d, reported that first quarter production stood at 660tb/d.

In the first quarter of 2013, the ACG production, which accounts for 78% of Azerbaijan oil output, declined by 50tb/d from the same period a year earlier.

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).

According to the State Statistics Committee, in January-February 2013, Azerbaijan produced about 7.2 million tons of oil and gas condensate, which is 3.6 percent less than in the same period of 2012.

In 2012, production of oil and gas condensate in Azerbaijan was 42.98 million tons, which is 5.3 percent less than in 2011.