Repatriated direct investments in oil&gas sector rose 3 times in 1Q

The total amount of foreign capital used in the Azerbaijani economy in the first quarter of 2006 was maintained in the level of last year comprising $1.2bn. In compliance with the payment balance developed by the National Bank of Azerbaijan, in this period the structure of foreign capital has undergone serious changes, Trend reports .

If in the first quarter of 2005 the special weight of credits summed up 23.2%, this year it reduced 1.6% to 14.7% and comprised $168.7m. It is first of all linked with the completion of the construction of the Baku Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export oil pipeline, cut in the amount of non-aggregated credits from $114.6m to $39.5m, while the amount of credits guaranteed credits rose from $39.3m to $108.2.

Special weight of direct investments, which is efficient form of investing, increased 8.5% to 85.3% and comprised $981m in order to stimulate the economic growth.

Over the past period of repatriation of direct investments used in the countrys economy and direct investments put in the foreign economy made up $1.1bn, 67.6% up as compared to last year. The rise is conditioned by increase of amount of repatriation of direct investments by big oil companies as the expense of cut in foreign commitments in the oil and gas sector under the Contract of Century. Though the repatriated investments in the oil and gas sector constituted $331.2m over the first quarter of 2005, the repatriated investments in the oil and gas sector rose 2.8 times in 2006 and reached to $925.7m.

Structure of in-flow of foreign investments in the country: