Energy Prices Rising, Azerbaijan’s Oil, Gas Revenues Continue to Decline

Proceeds to the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) from the sale of profitable oil and gas from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block and the Shah Deniz field in January-February 2021 amounted to $ 578.081 million

This is 42.5% lower than the indicator of the same period last year follows from the information of SOFAZ.

In January-February 2021, SOFAZ’s revenues from the sale of Azerbaijan’s profitable oil from the ACG block decreased by 38.6% or by $ 361.457 million, amounting to $ 574.543 million. 

At the same time, the state’s profit within the ACG project in January 2021 amounted to $ 244.946 million, and in February – $ 329.597 million.

In addition, the revenues of the Oil Fund from the sale of profitable condensate produced from the Shah Deniz field in January-February 2021 amounted to $ 3.538 million. This is 19.5 times less than the figures for the same period last year.

An interesting fact is that in 2021, SOFAZ practically stopped revenues from the Shah Deniz project. The Oil Fund has not yet recorded receipts from the sale of gas within the framework of Shah Deniz, and in February receipts from the sale of condensate stopped again.

The Oil Fund does not explain the reasons, and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), which, in addition to the producer in the project, also acts as a defender of the interests of the state, has not announced anything to the public.

The table of income of the Oil Fund from Shah Deniz in 2021:

It should be reminded that Azerbaijan has been making profits within the Shah Deniz project since 2007, when export operations began only in early July of the same year.

That year, the Oil Fund of Azerbaijan received $ 2.4 million from Shah Deniz. Already in 2010, the state’s profit from Shah Deniz reached $ 137 million. 

For some reason, Shah Deniz condensate was not taken into account, and it was added to the income of another project – Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli.

To date, the peak period of state revenue within the Shah Deniz project was observed in 2019 – $ 620.5 million, but next year they decreased by 52.6%, to $ 293.9 million. In this regard, it is very difficult to predict Azerbaijan’s gas revenues in the next five years: 2021-2025. 

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