BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.9
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR’s investment strategy is always adapted to the changing market conditions, Ibrahim Ahmadov, deputy head of the public relations and events department at SOCAR, earlier told Trend.
In a new report called Risky Bet, the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) estimated that NOCs could invest $1.9 trillion over the next ten years, meaning one-fifth of those investments would be unviable unless the oil price stayed above $40 a barrel.
“NRGI is right in saying in this report that market conditions are changing rapidly and therefore, companies are recommended to revise their strategy. For this reason, SOCAR has already worked out a new strategy until 2035 jointly with McKinsey. The strategy is under consideration of Azerbaijan’s state structures. As soon as it is approved, we will announce our corporate view regarding the investment strategy in the coming decade,” he said.
Ahmadov noted that the Risky Bet report doesn’t evaluate the real investment strategy of national oil companies.
“In many cases, for example, in the case of SOCAR, the plans of national oil companies for the future haven’t been announced yet. The authors of this report note that they take into consideration the previous investments of each companies, but not the real plans and assume that those companies will behave as before. That’s to say, here we’re talking about a hypothetical projection of each company's past investment strategy for the future. In this case, investments would of course be inviable, since market conditions have changed. Therefore, SOCAR’s view is as following: if we have achieved success up until now with a certain strategy, it doesn’t mean that this strategy will be successful in the future as well. SOCAR has therefore worked out a new strategy till 2035, despite the fact that we had a strategy till 2025. When it is approved, we will announce the main points of this strategy and new plans for the future,” he concluded.
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