Speaking at an oil conference and exhibition in Baku, the capital of neighboring oil-rich state Azerbaijan, Isaak Novruzov said that in the 1980s Georgia had produced 66,000 bbl/d, satisfying 70% of the then Soviet republic's oil demand, RIA Novosti reports.

"Production later declined considerably, but we plan to increase it to 4.5 million metric tons of crude by 2020," he said.

Novruzov also said natural gas output in the country, which is heavily dependent on Russian supplies, would reach an estimated 3.5-4 billion cu m a year by that time.

"This year, we have increased gas production, although levels are not still not very high. In the first quarter of 2006, it [gas output] doubled to 7 million cubic meters," the deputy minister said.

Boosting gas production would allow the country to meet 25% of domestic demand by 2010. Novruzov said the current production levels met only 4.2% of domestic demand for oil, and 1.5% of gas demand.

Novruzov also said the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline would bring Georgia a total of $2.5 billion, or $62 million a year.