Azerbaijan ready to fulfil OPEC decisions on oil output -SOCAR official

   

Azerbaijan has joined Russia and other leading oil producers in limiting output as part of an effort to prop up crude prices, which plunged to multi-year lows in 2016 but have increased more than 50 percent since mid-2017.

   

The country's oil production stood at 814,600 barrels per day ( bpd) in January, up slightly from 810,000 bpd in December.

   

"We are ready to fulfil decisions, which OPEC has been taking or will be taking in the future," Vitaly Baylarbayov, SOCAR deputy vice president, told Reuters.

   

He said that the country would be limiting oil production, if OPEC continues this approach.

   

"But if this strategy is cancelled ...we will be acting in line with new realities."

   

Baylarbayov said that Azerbaijan has stable oil production. According to the statistics committee, the country produced 38.78 million tonnes of crude oil in 2017, down 5.5 percent from 2016.

   

"Oil output might be a bit better at some sites in 2018, but stable production will be preserved for sure," Baylarbayov said.