Azerbaijan aims to triple oil shipments to N.America

BAKU, April 28 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan's state oil company, Socar, plans to almost triple crude exports to North America to 200,000 barrels per day, a company official said on Tuesday, without specifying the planned time schedule for the increase.

Nuru Guliyev, Socar's deputy manager for marketing and economics, said his company was looking to open up new markets -- including Canada -- for its Azeri Light crude.

'Only 22 percent of Azeri oil sales are to the American region. The Canadian oil market is young and is growing. Demand there is growing,' Guliyev told a conference.

Azerbaijan, an ex-Soviet country with a coastline on the Caspian Sea, produced 44 million tonnes of oil (about 884,000 bpd) in 2008.

Socar Vice-President Elshad Nasirov told Reuters financial television last month the country plans this year to increase output to at least 50 million tonnes and has no plans to join OPEC in cutting production.

His forecast was higher than the 45 million tonnes predicted in February by a government source.

Socar supplied 73,000 bpd of oil to North America in 2008.

Guliyev said up to 40 percent of Socar's current exports were to the American and Asian markets. In 2006, these markets accounted for only 10 percent to 15 percent of all exports.

'There is demand for Azeri oil, but it's also a question of price,' he told the conference. 'It's one thing to supply oil at a price of $140 a barrel and another at a price of $40-50.'

Socar last year became the main exporter of oil from Azerbaijan, a position it has no intention of relinquishing, Guliyev said.

'(Socar's) exports tripled (last year) to 23 million tonnes. In 2009, we aim to strengthen Socar's role as the main exporter of oil from Azerbaijan,' he said.

Socar also plans this year to double oil flows through the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline to 2.5 million tonnes, Guliyev said. The pipeline, which links the Azeri capital to the Black Sea, has annual capacity of 5 million tonnes.

This route will only use oil from Socar's old deposits, and not from the Azeri-Chirag-Gyuneshli (ACG) deposit controlled by a BP-led consortium. The ACG deposit is the main source of oil for the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline to the Mediterranean coast.