SOCAR boosts oil, gas production in 2021

By Ayya Lmahamad

In 2021, Azerbaijan's State Oil Company (SOCAR) increased oil and gas production by 6.5 and 7 percent, respectively, on fields operated by the company on its own or as a major shareholder.

SOCAR's oil and gas production totaled 7.9 million tons and 7.9 billion cubic meters, respectively, during the reported period.

"The country's total oil and gas production has continued to rise. This is especially noticeable in the gas industry," the company stated.

In comparison to 2020, gas production in the country increased by 18.1 percent to 43.9 billion cubic meters. Azerbaijan also produced 34.6 million tons of crude oil in 2021.

"The slight increase in oil production is primarily due to the gradual elimination of voluntary oil output cuts by the OPEC+ agreement," the company stated.

SOCAR completed approximately 62,000 meters of drilling work in 2021, an increase of 10.3 percent over 2020.

At the same time, SOCAR's oil exports to global markets increased by about 1 percent last year, to 18.1 million tons. This includes both the company's own oil production and the profit shares of the government of Azerbaijan and SOCAR in oil produced by international consortiums operating in Azerbaijan.

In 2021, natural gas exports increased by 40 percent to 18.1 billion cubic meters.

Last year, the country consumed 13 billion cubic meters of natural gas, an 8.4 percent increase over the previous year.

"Increasing the country's gasification level from 96.2 percent to 96.3 percent by 2021, as well as nearly tripling urea fertilizer production, are the main factors driving consumption growth," the company stated.

It should be noted that SOCAR uses natural gas as a raw material in the production of methanol and urea fertilizer, thereby increasing its added value severalfold.

Furthermore, SOCAR's Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery processed 6.7 million tons of oil in 2021, while SOCAR's Natural Gas Processing Plant produced 3.8 billion cubic meters. The volume of oil refining increased by more than 13.3 percent, despite a decrease in gas processing.

"In the context of the 2021 results, it should be noted that the export of oil refining and petrochemical products (including polymers) exceeded 3 million tons. This is approximately 25.5 percent higher than the results of 2020," according to the company.