Ilkham Aliyev spoke June 4 at an annual international conference on Caspian Sea oil and gas production and refining.
Aliyev said Azerbaijan, which is an oil exporting nation, is also turning into a global exporter of natural gas.
Over the past year, Azerbaijan has commissioned the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, launched the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline and started gas production at the Shah-Deniz field, Aliyev said.
Gas reserves in the Shah-Deniz field, located off Azerbaijan's Caspian coast, have been estimated at between 50 and 100 billion cubic meters. Gas from the field will be pumped down the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum pipeline via Georgia to Turkey, and onto European countries.
The 1,767 km (1,097 mile) Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, expected to start operating at full export capacity from 2008, pumps crude from Azerbaijan's fields off the Caspian coast via Georgia to Turkey, and onto Western markets. The pipeline's capacity is 50 million metric tons (367 million barrels) of oil a year.
