Details added (first version posted at 17:09)
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 28
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR’s internal debt has reached $1.095 billion, says Suleyman Gasimov, SOCAR vice president for economic issues.
Gasimov made the statement at a meeting with representatives of NGOs in Baku June 28.
He said SOCAR’s consolidated debt is $6.3 billion, or around 9.4 billion manats.
Gasimov added that SOCAR is effectively managing the debt as it gets the funds in tranches.
The company received the first tranche of 69 million manats for reconstruction of the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery and 200 million manats for drilling in 2015, he said.
“The second tranche of 200 more million manats will be received for drilling operations in 2016 and the third tranche will be received in 2017. The funds for the refinery’s modernization will be used in case of necessity,” he noted.
Gasimov added that SOCAR’s debt increased as a result of devaluation of the manat as the main debts are in foreign currency.
“Moreover, the company’s revenues reduced by 18 percent and stood at 33 billion manats in 2015 due to the fall in oil prices,” he stressed. “SOCAR’s assets stand at 39.9 billion manats.”
Gasimov added that all the loans drawn by SOCAR and all the investment projects implemented by the company correspond to its financial strategy, developed jointly with the Azerbaijani Finance Ministry in consultation with the PwC international accounting firm.
“SOCAR does not intend to receive loans in foreign currency in the near future,” he said.
“The company will focus on finding internal sources of financing in manats or get loans in foreign currency under the state guarantees."
SOCAR includes companies producing oil and gas onshore and offshore.
SOCAR is the sole producer of oil products in Azerbaijan. It has filling stations in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Romania and Switzerland.
SOCAR also co-owns the largest Turkish petrochemical complex, Petkim, and other assets in Turkey.
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