Azerbaijan to cut oil supplies via BTC

Next month, a decrease in the export of Azerbaijani oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline is expected compared to January.

The graph reviewed by Reuters shows that the volume of crude oil exports from Azerbaijan to the Turkish port of Jeyhan was set at 14.72 million barrels in February, compared with 17.27 million barrels this month.

The total length of the BTC is 1,768 kilometres, of which 443 km run through the territory of Azerbaijan, 249 km through Georgia, 1,076 km through Turkey. The construction of the pipeline began in April 2003 and was filled with oil on May 18, 2005.

The shareholders of BTC Co, which was established on August 1, 2002, to implement the project, are: British BP (30.1%), Azeri AzBTC (25%), Hungarian MOL (8.9%), Norwegian Equinor (8.71%), Turkish TPAO (6.53%), Italian Eni (5%), French Total (5%), Japanese Itochu (3.4%), and Inpex (2.5%), American ExxonMobil (2.5%), and Indian ONGC (2.36%).

According to BTC operator BP, the pipeline's total oil exports since its inception reached 500 million tons on December 12, 2021.

Oil production in Azerbaijan in 2022 will grow by 80 thousand barrels per day (bpd) - up to 830 thousand bpd, according to the December report of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). According to the oil cartel, at the end of last year, the production of black gold in the largest economy of the South Caucasus increased by 20 thousand bpd and reached 750 thousand bpd.

US forecast of oil production in Azerbaijan

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) under the US Department of Energy has raised its forecast for daily production of oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in Azerbaijan in 2022. However, in general, the volume of black gold production in the largest Transcaucasian republic, according to the EIA, tends to decline.

According to the forecast, the production of oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in 2022 in Azerbaijan will amount to 740 thousand barrels per day. In the previous forecast, the EIA expected 2022 production in the country to be 730,000 barrels per day, reported on January 12.

The daily production of oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in Azerbaijan next year will amount to 710 thousand barrels, according to the EIA.

In addition, the report indicates that last year the daily production of liquid hydrocarbons in Azerbaijan averaged 720,000 barrels.

According to the report of the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan, in January-November 2021, the country produced about 31.6 million tons of oil (including condensate). At the same time, oil production (including condensate) was approximately 16.5 thousand tons less than in the same period last year.

The Azeri - Chirag - Guneshli (ACG) block of fields accounted for 20.6 million tons of oil, and Shah Deniz - 3.8 million tons of condensate. Oil production (including condensate) directly by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) amounted to 7.2 million tons.

During the reporting period, about 25.7 million tons of oil were exported (including condensate). Of these, about 24.5 million tons falls on the international consortium led by the British energy corporation BP, and more than 1.2 million tons - on the share of SOCAR.

The export of Azerbaijani oil (including condensate) decreased in 11 months of 2021 by 334 thousand tons, by 1.3% compared to the same period in 2020.