In quarter 1, 2015 oil production in Azerbaijan decreased by 200,000 tons

In quarter 1, 2015 State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) extracted 2,071,400 tons of oil.

SOCAR’s web site reads that from January to March 2014 SOCAR extracted 2,108,700 tons of oil. During quarter 1, 2015 SOCAR’s oil extraction decreased by 37,300 tons or by 1.8%.

In March 2015 SOCAR extracted 717,200 tons of oil against 741,600 tons in March 2014.

According to SOCAR’s calculations, during quarter 1, 2015 Azerbaijan extracted 10,682,700 tons of oil. Oil production in the country decreased by 201,500 tons or by 1.85% against January-March 2014.

According to the Azerbaijan State Statistical Committee, during quarter 1, 2015 the country extracted 10,669,100 tons of oil (growth by 1.4%). The production of stock tank oil totaled 10,545,100 tons (growth by 1.8%).

The difference between the calculations done by SOCAR and the State Statistical Committee is significant. What is the reason? Last year Turan’s correspondent brought up the issue of difference between the  reports of BP and State Statistical Committee at the presentation of the BP World Statistical Review. That time BP’s senios economist explained that BP’s report is based on the international standards accepted in the West, while the State Statistical Comittee still uses the Soviet standards, such as GOST. However, the difference, especially calculation of volume of natural gas, is striking. BP’s representative added that SOCAR’s data calculation is also based on the international standards.

The situation is paradoxical indeed: two big companies are involved in production in the country – BP-Azerbaijan s and SOCAR. They use one and the same method of statistics, while the State Statistical Committe uses a diffreent one. More than 20 years now we have all western technologies in the oil industry, but the government still uses the Soviet statistics.

In 2014 total oil production in Azerbaijan reached 41.9 million tons, of which 8,402,500 tons was extracted by SOCAR.—0—