Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2
Trend:
Consolidated assets of the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR amounted to 39.083 billion manats as of January 1, 2016, the company's Vice President for Economic Issues Suleyman Gasimov said June 2 at the International Caspian Oil & Gas Conference 2016 in Baku.
"The company's losses amounted to 1.438 billion manats in 2015," Gasimov said. "However, at the expense of the exchange rate difference, it was possible to get a profit in the amount of 3.271 billion manats during the revaluation of SOCAR's foreign exchange reserves. The total volume of SOCAR's consolidated assets amounted to 39.083 billion manats as of early 2016."
The Central Bank of Azerbaijan devaluated manat on Feb.21, 2015, as a result of which the exchange rate of manat dropped by almost 34 percent and stood at 1.05 manats per US dollar. Following this, the CBA switched to the floating rate of manat on Dec.21, 2015, as a result of which the exchange rate of dollar and euro increased by 47.6 percent and 47.9 percent and stood at 1.55 and 1.685 manats, respectively. As a result, manat's rate against the US dollar dropped by 97.6 percent throughout 2015.
SOCAR vice president said that when all the oil and gas companies suspend their projects due to the oil prices fall, SOCAR continues to implement projects the company started both within Azerbaijan and abroad.
"These projects are TAP, TANAP, Star refinery, reconstruction of the Baku Oil Refinery named after Heydar Aliyev and chemical production, construction of offshore platforms for stabilization of production and others," Gasimov said.
"The financing of investment projects is carried out from Azerbaijan's state budget, at the expense of loans attracted, as well as through the company's revenues from commercial activity and optimization of work," he added.
Gasimov highlighted SOCAR Polymer and carbamide plant construction projects among the domestic ones.
"Currently, the authorized capital of SOCAR Polymer Ltd. amounts to 101 million manats," said Gasimov.
He added that SOCAR saved $150.5 million due to implementation of the costs' optimization program.
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