Azerbaijan increased production of natural gas in the first half of the year while oil output declined, the State Statistics Committee said.

The country pumped 9.1 billion cubic meters of marketable gas during the period, up from 8.9 billion cubic meters a year earlier, the committee said in a report on its website.

Oil production fell to 21.2 million tons from 21.8 million tons year-on-year.

No reason was given for the decline, which was probably caused by planned maintenance at the Azeri platform of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) block of fields in the Caspian operated by BP.

ACG accounts for nearly 80 percent of Azerbaijan’s total oil production. Partners in the project include Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Statoil, Turkiye Petrolleri AO and ONGC Videsh Ltd.

Azerbaijan increased oil output 0.2 percent to 43.1 million tons last year. 

Bakudaily.az