OREANDA-NEWS. March 30, 2010. This February the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) reduced gas supplies to the domestic market by 7.3% against January 2010 when they observed growth of 3.7% versus December 2009.

Since July 2009 SOCAR has been running national gas operator Azeriqaz CJSC (now it is a SOCAR sub-company of the same name).

SOCAR reports that this February gas supplies to the domestic market reached 749 million cu m versus 808.4 million cu m in January 2010 and 779.49 million cu m in December 2009.

Maximum level of such supplies to the domestic market was registered in December 2008 (1.08 bn cu m).

“For Jan-Feb 2010 supplies to the internal market totaled 1.557 bn cu m,” the Company informed.

In 2009, supplies totaled 8.89 bn cu m versus 10.767 bn cu m in 2008.

For Jan-Feb 2010, as well as between August and September 2009, the former main gas consumer, Azeriqaz CJSC, did not receive gas, although in entire 2009 it was designed 3.1 bn cu m versus 5.8 bn cu m in 2008.

Energy operator Azerenerji OJSC received 372.8 million cu m of gas from SOCAR this February, 783.6 million cu m for Jan-Feb 2009, 4.318 bn cu m in 2009 and 4.95 bn cu m in 2008.

Company’s gas supplies to the population reached 243.7 million cu m this February, 500.2 million for Jan-Feb 2010, and 849.14 million in 2009.

SOCAR’s supplies to industrial sector totaled 81.3 million cu m in February 2010 (against 173 million cu m for Jan-Feb 2010 and 421.06 million cu m in 2009) and to public utility & budget consumers 42.6 million cu m (against 83.8 million cu m and 53.89 million cu m respectively). Energy agency of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan received 8.6 million cu m this February and 16.6 million cu m since early 2010.