Azernews.Az

By Gulgiz Dadashova

The continued decline of oil prices has negatively affected the budget transfers of Azerbaijan’s energy giant SOCAR.

Noting that this is normal due to the situation in global crude market, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said the price of oil in Azerbaijan's state budget for next year should be laid down at the level of $50-$55 a barrel.

Azerbaijan's state budget for 2015 was formed at the level of the oil price of $90.

SOCAR transferred 874,255 million manats to the state budget from January to June 2015. The payments to the state budget decreased by 243,348 million manats or by 21.8% against the same period last year. Total of 83,498 million manats has been transferred to the State Social Security Fund.

In 2014 SOCAR transferred over 1,855 billion manats to the state budget, up 280,793 million or 17.8% against 2013 (1,574 billion manats).

The average price for AZERI LT, exported from Azerbaijan via the Ceyhan, Batumi and Supsa ports to Italian Augusta port, was $49.62 per barrel last week, or $1.46 less than the previous week.

The maximum price for AZERI LT was $50.81 per barrel and the minimum price was $49.05 per barrel during the reporting period.

The average price for Urals (Ex-Novo) exported from Azerbaijan via the Novorossiysk port stood at $46.95 per barrel or $0.95 per barrel less than the previous week. The maximum price for Urals totaled $47.97 per barrel and the minimum - $45.69 per barrel.

The average price for Brent Dated was $47.66 per barrel or $1.21 per barrel less than the previous week. The maximum price for Brent was $49.01 per barrel and the minimum - $46.61 during the reporting period.

The country’s oil production will hit 0.88 million barrels a day in the third and fourth quarters of the year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Short-Term Energy Outlook.

Azerbaijan’s oil production stood at 0.86 million barrels a day in the first quarter and 0.87 million barrels a day in the second quarter of this year, according to the latest EIA forecasts.

Average volume of Azerbaijan’s oil production is predicted by the EIA at 0.87 million barrels a day. For the next year EIA forecasts Azerbaijan’s oil production to be at the same level.

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