Oil production of Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR from the company's operated fields increased by 3.7%, while gas production rose by 16% in the first quarter of 2020, according to the company's quarterly figures released on Tuesday.
SOCAR produced 1.92 million tons of oil in the first quarter of this year, compared to 1.85 million tons in the same period of 2019.
The company's gas production reached 1.81 billion cubic meters in the first quarter of 2020, from 1.56 billion cubic meters in the January-March period of last year.
Export figures of the company show that SOCAR exported about 5.4 million tons of crude oil and 3.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the first quarter of this year.
In the same period of 2019, SOCAR exported about 5.8 million tons of crude oil and 3.2 billion cubic meters of gas.
SOCAR said the main perceptible change in the production figures in the first quarter of this year was related to the company directing more crude oil and natural gas to domestic refineries and its focus on chemical product exports.
'Today, exports are realized increasingly in the form of chemical products, which creates a higher value than the export of crude,' it concluded.
By Ebru Sengul Cevrioglu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr