OREANDA-NEWS. December 14, 2007. The President of Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev gave SOCAR the order to increase the oil production by accelerating drilling work at the gas fields and build new gas pipelines. The President said: “I am sure that as a result of these actions the natural gas output of Azerbaijan will be increased in 2007. Azerbaijan must supply local demands with own resources”. The Azerbaijani oilmen follow the order of the President.

The increased indicators in gas field are the real example for the successful implementation of “Gas Program”. If in 2006 daily gas handover was 10.4 million cubic meters, in January of 2007 that number reached 12.9 million, in March 13 million, in June-July 14.6 million, in October 15.5 million, and in November 16.5 million cubic meters. SOCAR daily hands over 17 million cubic meters of gas starting from December 1. On December 11 this number amounted to 17.3 million cubic meters. It should be noted that in December of the last year daily handover of the Company was 12.9 million cubic meters. SOCAR is expected to hand over 5 billion 200 million cubic meters of gas by the end of the year. During the last 11 months 4 billion 680 million cubic meters of gas was handed over. It should be noted that for the same time period of 2006 that number made up a total of 3.4 billon cubic meters. By implementing “Gas Program”, SOCAR is expected to produce 8 billion cubic meters of gas in 2008 and to hand over 7 billion cubic meters of gas. Thus, daily gas handover will amount to 20 million cubic meters.