Nationwide natural gas production grew by 10 percent in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2019 and amounted to 10 billion cubic meters, oil production equaled to 9.3 million tons. Despite some growth in production on the fields, operated by SOCAR, the decline in the country’s overall oil production continued in the first quarter of 2020.
SOCAR carried out nearly 26,000 meters of drilling work, including about 9,000 meters in March.
From January through March 2020, SOCAR’s Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery processed more than 1.5 million tons of crude oil. SOCAR Gas Refinery processed more than 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas during that period. SOCAR’s petrochemical unit Azerikimya refined about 167,000 tons of intermediate products.
SOCAR exported about 5.4 million tons of crude oil in the first quarter of this year. Some 3.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas have been exported from the country in the past three months. This year, the actual level of gas consumption amounted to 4.1 billion cubic meters, which exceeds the last year’s figure by 7 percent. The export of oil and petrochemical products amounted to nearly 534,000 tons from January through March 2020.
During the reporting period, about 94,000 tons of methanol, about 43,000 tons of carbamide were exported. This year SOCAR Polymer produced more than 49,000 tons of polymer products. More than 43,000 tons or 89 percent of polymers were exported, while about 5 percent was sold on local market.
The main perceptible change in SOCAR's production figures in the first quarter of this year is that SOCAR directs more crude oil and natural gas to the domestic refineries. Therefore, today chemical products are mainly exported, which creates a higher value than the export of raw materials.
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) is involved in the search, exploration and development of oil and gas fields in Azerbaijan, production, processing and transportation of oil, gas and gas condensate, sale of oil and petrochemical products, gas in the domestic and foreign markets and providing the population with natural gas.
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