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Small Azerbaijan floats massive oil output cuts
AP - Thursday, December 18
ORAN, Algeria - Oil-rich Azerbaijan is ready to slash crude output by more than one-third to try to help boost prices, the energy minister said Wednesday as OPEC members decided to cut world production by a record 2.2 million barrels a day.
But rather than fresh output cuts, Natik Aliev's dramatic pledge appeared to reflect the consequences of an accident at a pumping platform in October that has already sliced into production.
"Azerbaijan will support the OPEC cuts," Aliev told reporters at an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting in Oran, Algeria. Azerbaijan is not a member of the 13-nation group.
Aliev said that "in the coming months" his country could cut output by up to 300,000 barrels a day, from current output of 840,000 barrels a day. That would add substantially to overall OPEC cuts announced Wednesday.
"We are doing what we can to try to stabilize the markets," Aliev said.
Oil industry analysts say the October accident has reduced Azerbaijan's output to around 500,000 barrels a day _ roughly the target figure after the cuts Aliev proposed.
The cutbacks could have heavy consequences down the road for Azerbaijan. The oil bonanza made it the world's fastest-growing economy last year, when it recorded GDP growth of more than 23 percent. The state oil fund held more than $10 billion as of the beginning of October, and the former Soviet republic has yet to feel the fallout from the economic downturn.
But Aliev said the government of his nation on the oil-rich Caspian Sea had calculated the 2009 budget based on an oil price of $70 a barrel, and would have to compensate for the loss of money by tapping into a strategic government oil fund.
Oil prices have dived in recent months from nearly $150 a barrel to less than $50.
Aliev said Azerbaijan had the capacity to produce 1 million barrels a day but would not do so "given the current price situation."
___
Associated Press writer Aida Sultanova in Baku, Azerbaijan contributed to this report.
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