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BAKU, June 4 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan plans to produce 40.7million tonnes of oil and 30.2 billion cubic metres (bcm) ofnatural gas in 2015, a senior official at Azeri state energyfirm SOCAR said on Thursday.
This compares with 41.9 million tonnes of oil and 29.6 bcmof gas last year. The previous forecasts for this year were 40.3million tonnes of oil and 29 bcm of gas.
Rakhman Gurbanov, vice-president of oil-gas production andtransportation, said at the annual Caspian Oil and Gas 2015conference in Baku that SOCAR should produce 8.3 million tonnesof oil in 2015, the same as in 2014, and 6.5 bcm of gas, downfrom 7.2 bcm last year.
He said 6.5 million tonnes of oil produced by SOCAR would beprocessed, while 1.7 million tonnes would be exported; 4.85 bcmof gas would be used for domestic needs and 1.2 bcm - exported.
Crude oil and condensate production in Azerbaijan rose to14.2 million tonnes in the first four months of 2015 from 13.6million a year earlier, driven by rising oil output at the mainAzeri, Chirag and Guneshli (ACG) oilfields operated by Britain'sBP.
Natural gas production fell to 9.7 bcm in January-April from10.2 bcm a year earlier due to a decline in production by SOCAR. (Reporting by Nailia Bagirova,; Writing by Margarita Antidze,;Editing by Timothy Heritage/Elizabeth Piper)
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