Italy turns to be main buyer of Azerbaijani oil

http://www.azernews.az/oil_and_gas/95755.html 

By Fatma Babayeva

Italy was the main importer of the Azerbaijani oil in 2015, Kamran Mammadzade, the deputy manager of Crude Oil and Oil Products Export Department at SOCAR said on April 25.

Mammadzade emphasized that Italy imported about 25 percent of Azerbaijan’s total oil exports in 2015.

The volume of Azerbaijani oil exports totaled 35 million tons in 2015, he said. Among the biggest importers of Azerbaijan’s oil were Italy (25 percent), Germany (13 percent), Indonesia (10 percent), Israel (9 per cent) and France (8 percent).

Moreover, the geography of Azerbaijan’s oil deliveries has grown significantly during recent years. Currently, Azerbaijan’s state owned energy company SOCAR supplies oil to more than 30 countries in Europe, Asia and America, the deputy manager added.

Meanwhile, SOCAR's share in the total volume of Azerbaijani oil export amounted to 22.1 million tons. Azerbaijan exported 1.9 million tons of oil products and 241,000 tons of petrochemical products in 2015.

Mammadzade further added that 25 percent of SOCAR’s oil products exported to Malta, and 16 percent to Turkey last year. In addition, the volume of the oil product supplies to Georgia increased by14 percent. The top five importers of Azerbaijan’s oil products include Gibraltar with 10 percent and Italy with 9 percent.

The Netherlands (with 22 percent), China (19 percent), Turkey and Russia (16 and 15 percent respectively) became the main importers of petrochemicals.

The country's largest hydrocarbon basins are located offshore in the Caspian Sea, particularly the Azeri Chirag Guneshli (ACG) field. Similar to its share of total production, ACG also holds over 70% of Azerbaijan's total reserves, with about 5 billion barrels located in this field.

SOCAR produces about 20% of the country's oil output. The remaining 80% of Azerbaijan's output comes from the ACG oil fields by the BP-operated Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) and at the BP-operated Shah Deniz field (which produces oil condensate).

Azerbaijan exports oil through four routes – the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Supsa (western route) and Baku-Novorossiysk (northern route), as well as by rail.