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"The price of oil has fallen below the bar at $ 100 per barrel; this can cause serious problems with the implementation of the budget in Azerbaijan during the current year. Do not forget that the country's budget is made up with the price of 100 dollars per barrel. At the same time the level of the oil production in the country falls," Azerbaijani newspaper “Zerkalo”writes.

The article says that according to the Bloomberg news agency the price of “Brent” oil, first time since July 2012, on the background of weakening global economic growth and reduction of energy demand fall below 100 dollars for a barrel. Futures’ June price for “Brent” oil at the London ICE Futures Exchange fell by $ 1.22 to $ 99.41 for a barrel in the morning on April 16. On balance of the previous trading these contracts fell by $ 2.72 to $ 100.39 for a barrel. Price of May futures for WTI oil at electronic auction of New York Mercantile Exchange fell by $ 1.31 to $ 87.37 for a barrel. Yesterday these contracts fell by $ 2.58 to 88.71 dollars for a barrel, the lowest closing level since December 2012.

As stated in the article, Azerbaijan hopes to increase the oil production by the end of the year, by starting the production at “Chirag Oil Project”, which is the next phase of field development of "Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli", which provides oil to the western part of the field development of "Chirag", construction and installation of new drilling and residential platform "West Chirag", which is at a depth of 170 meters. In the framework of “Chirag Oil Project” daily oil production is projected at 160-185 thousand barrels. Oil production in frameworks of COP will begin in late 2013.

The only means for Azerbaijan designed to uphold the national economy afloat in case of future fall are the funds accumulated in the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAR). SOFAR income in January-March 2013 amounted to 3 523.4 million manats, while the expenses amounted to 2 929.6 million manats.

The main part of the expanses of Oil Fund are transfers to the state budget which amounted to 2 840.4 million manats. It is noteworthy that the fund's expenses from exchange rate differences during January-March amounted to 446.8 million ($ 570 million).

SOFAR assets as of April 1 increased with 0.6% compared with the beginning of 2013. They amounted to $ 34.325 billion.
In 2011 in Azerbaijan oil production reduced. Thus, if in 2010 the country produced 50.8 million tons of oil, in 2011 oil production decreased by 10.8% to 45.4 million tonnes. In 2012, oil production has declined by 5.3% to 43 million tons. During the first month of 2013 oil production in Azerbaijan decreased by 2.6%, and for 3 months it reached 4.4%.

In general, a decline in oil production is growing dependence of the economy and the budget of Azerbaijan on the oil sector. Thus, the share transfer of the SOFAR grows in the state budget revenues since 2007, when the transfer of SOFAR was less than 9% of revenues.In 2013 it is planned that the transfer will make the 59.3% of the revenues of the state budget. Overall, in 2013, Azerbaijan's state budget revenues in the oil sector will amount to over 79% of total revenues.