As of 2017, Azerbaijan produced a range of metals and industrial minerals, including aluminum, bentonite, copper, gold, iodine, limestone, silver and steel.
[1] Azerbaijan's importance as a world mineral producer, however, was based on its petroleum extracting industry.
The country has been a significant oil producer for more than a century, but recent focus has been on developing offshore resources in the Caspian Sea.
In 2005, Azerbaijan had signed more than 20 major agreements to develop oilfields with approximately 30 companies from 15 countries.
Offshore hydrocarbon structures in the Caspian Sea accounted for most of the country’s oil and gas production.
The field is being developed by the Shah Deniz consortium, whose members include BP, LukAgip, National Iranian Oil Company (NICO) International, SOCAR, Statoil ASA of Norway, TotalFinaElf, and Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklig (TPAO) of Turkey.
[2] In the first phase of the Shah Deniz field’s development, production of natural gas for export was expected to begin in late 2006.
In the second phase, according to BP, the Shah Deniz project could produce an additional 1 trillion cubic feet (28 km3) per year of natural gas by as early as 2015.
[2] With the new pipeline infrastructure in place, Shah Deniz would be capable of producing approximately 350 billion cubic feet (9.9×109 m3) per year of natural gas by 2009.