Energy-rich Azerbaijan expects to boost oil and gas production this year and is seeking to expand its energy export markets, President Ilham Aliyev said Tuesday.
Energy-rich
Azerbaijan
expects to boost oil and gas production this year and is seeking to expand its
energy export markets, President Ilham Aliyev said Tuesday.
"This year we expect to extract 52 million [metric] tons of oil and 30
billion cubic meters of gas, three times more than
Azerbaijan
's
needs," Aliyev said at the opening of a conference on
Caspian
Sea
oil and gas development.
"Extraction is now far greater than our export possibilities. However, we
must make sure export capabilities equal extraction. To this end we need new
markets or to widen already existing markets," Aliyev said.
Azerbaijan
in
2009 extracted 50.4 million tons of oil and 23.6 billion cubic meters of
natural gas, according to government figures.
Rich in oil and gas and strategically located between
Russia
and
Iran
,
Azerbaijan
has
been courted by both
Moscow
and
the West since gaining its independence with the 1991 collapse of the
Soviet
Union
.
Backed by Western governments, companies such as BP PLC (BP.LN) have pumped
hundreds of millions of dollars into the country's energy sector, building a
corridor of oil and gas pipelines from
Azerbaijan
through
Georgia
and
Turkey
to
Europe
,
bypassing
Russia
.
Azerbaijan
is
seen as a crucial potential provider for the European Union's Nabucco pipeline
project, a 3,300-kilometer (2,050-mile) pipeline between
Turkey
and
Austria
scheduled to be completed by 2014.
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