Azerbaijan increased oil and gas exports in the first quarter of this year, the State Customs Office and State energy firm SOCAR said.

The country exported 5.129 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas in the first quarter of 2021, 45 percent up from the same period last year.

“This growth in exports is mainly due to the commissioning of the Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline, ” SOCAR said in a statement.

Azerbaijan exports natural gas from its giant Shah Deniz field. The BP-led consortium, which develops Shah Deniz project, has been pumping gas from the offshore field’s first phase since 2006, delivering more than 10 bcm a year of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

The second phase started output in 2018, adding 16 bcm of gas production capacity at its peak to bring total capacity to 26 bcm.

The country started commercial natural gas supplies to Europe from Shah Deniz II via its $40-billion Southern Gas Corridor in December 2020, when the corridor’s last part, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, was completed. The project is aimed at reducing Europe’s dependence on natural gas supplies from Russia, which currently controls 34 percent of the continent’s gas market.

Azerbaijan aims to supply European gas markets with 10 bcm of gas a year, including 8 bcm to Italy and a combined 2 bcm to Greece and Bulgaria.

SOCAR said that gas supplies to Europe were projected at over 5 bcm in 2021.

According to Azerbaijan’s State Customs Office, gas exports in the first quarter reached 6.166 bcm, which was almost 21 percent of the country’s total exports.

In 2020, Azerbaijan exported 13.396 bcm of gas.

Oil exports rose to 8.9 million tonnes in January-March 2021 from 7.6 million tonnes in the first three months of 2020.

The country uses the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline via Georgia to export oil from the Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli oilfields operated by British oil major BP. It also exports oil with the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline via Russia, the Baku-Supsa pipeline via Georgia and by rail in Georgia.

The volume of exported refined oil products was 668,581 tonnes, 25.3 percent up from January-March 2020.

“Growth of 25 percent was achieved mainly due to the export of diesel fuel, bitumen, coke, lubricants and petrochemical products,” SOCAR said.

In 2020, SOCAR exported 17.878 million tonnes of oil and 2.409 million tonnes of refined products.