BAKU: Azerbaijan exported 4.9 million tonnes of oil in the second quarter of 2019, down from 6 million tonnes in the same period last year, Azeri state energy company SOCAR said on Thursday.

The company said that decline is exports was "due to the redirection of part of the produced oil to the needs of petrochemical enterprises that were launched at the beginning of this year."

SOCAR started a polypropylene plant with a capacity of 184,000 tonnes per year a and high-density polyethylene plant with an annual capacity of 120,000 tonnes in 2019.

Exports of petrochemicals rose 48% year-on-year in the second quarter.

The country exports oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline from the Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli (ACG) oilfields operated by BP.

It also exports oil via Russia, through the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline and via Georgia by rail and through the Baku-Supsa pipeline.

Exports of oil produced by SOCAR independently, or not at the ACG oilfields, was 320,000 tonnes in the second quarter, unchanged from the volume last year.