Azerbaijan plans to increase annual gas production to between 35 billion and 40 billion cubic meters by 2020 from the current 29 billion, Rovnaq Abdullayev, president of the country's state energy firm Socar, said Tuesday.

Azerbaijan's biggest gas field is currently Shah Deniz, operated by U.K. oil major BP PLC (BP). Abdullayev mentioned the Absheron and Umid offshore blocks in the Caspian Sea as promising new fields. Socar plans to develop the Absheron block jointly with France's Total SA (TOT) and GDF Suez (GSZ.FR).

Azerbaijan is a major exporter of oil and gas to the European and international markets.

Company Web site: www.socar.az

-By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Dow Jones Newswires; +7 495 937 8445; jacob.pedersen@dowjones.com

(Aida Sultanova in Baku contributed to this article.)