Energy-rich Azerbaijan expects no drop in its oil and gas production this year despite global economic woes, President Ilham Aliyev said Tuesday.
Aliyev also said the ex-Soviet republic's economy continued to grow in the first quarter of 2009 despite the global crisis, albeit at a slower rate than last year's total growth.
"Azerbaijan will this year extract 45 million [metric] tons of oil and 21 billion-27 billion cubic meters of gas," Aliyev said at the opening of a conference on Caspian Sea oil and gas development.
Last year, Azerbaijan produced 44.5 million metric tons of oil and 22.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas, according to government figures.
"Despite the global crisis, in the first quarter Azerbaijan recorded economic growth of 4.3% and growth in the non-oil sector of 13.7%," Aliyev added.
Azerbaijan's economy grew last year by 10.8%, a steep drop from the two previous years when the economy grew at an average of about 30%.
A mainly Muslim country wedged between Russia and Iran, Azerbaijan is a key partner in projects to deliver Caspian Sea energy reserves to the West through oil and gas pipelines to Turkey that bypass Russia.