BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Overall, Azerbaijan produces around four times the energy it consumes and has one of the highest levels of energy self-sufficiency in the world, Trend reports with reference to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
IEA says in its latest report that Azerbaijan’s economy is driven by the oil and gas sector, which accounts for some 90 percent of the country’s exports and between 30 percent and 50 percent of its GDP, depending on oil prices. Export revenue from oil and increasingly from gas as well has brought Azerbaijan significant wealth and raised the standard of living in the country. The dynamics of the country’s oil and gas sector substantially influence economic growth, through both industrial activity and consumer spending linked to employment and salaries.
“Azerbaijan’s domestic total energy supply (TES) relies on natural gas (68 percent in 2020) and oil (31 percent in 2020). Natural gas is used to generate most of the electricity and heat in the country (over 90 percent in 2020). Fuel oil was phased out in the early 2000s, but had to be briefly reintroduced following the gas supply squeeze in 2015-2017. Crude oil is refined locally to satisfy most national oil product consumption, and local production is about to expand following a refinery upgrade which is now under way. It is noteworthy that no coal is used in the country.
Natural gas is the largest source of TES, but a major share of it is transformed into electricity and heat. This explains the relatively equal shares of oil products and gas in TFC, with oil averaging 42 percent of TFC in 2010-2020 as compared with gas (40 percent). In the same time period, electricity accounted on average for 16 percent of the TFC,” reads the report.