BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.20
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR will make investment decisions in a new format, Ibrahim Ahmadov, deputy head of the public relations and events department at SOCAR said, Trend reports.
He noted that currently, SOCAR is not considering new investment projects, since it is not the right time for the company to take such decisions. “COVID-19 pandemic has considerably impacted the energy market and SOCAR faced losses albeit as minimal as possible.”
Ahmadov announced a transformation from one-stage to two-stage control at SOCAR. “Therefore, we plan to make all investment decisions in a new format in the future.”
SOCAR completed 2020 with a net loss of 1.7 billion manat, since the company’s results were adversely impacted by the pandemic abroad, especially, in Turkey, which accounts for the major part of the company’s investments abroad.
Moreover, the difference in the exchange rate also negatively affected SOCAR’s operations. SOCAR faced a net loss for the second time since 2008. SOCAR still achieved better-than-expected financial results in 2020 thanks to the optimization measures taken during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The positive results achieved in the field development, transportation, and sale of hydrocarbons allowed the company to reduce the expected amount of net loss it might face last year.
SOCAR’s total turnover dropped to 49.6 billion manat due to the sharp decrease in oil and natural gas prices globally, as well as the dramatic fall in profit margins of oil and petrochemical products.
SOCAR gained a net profit of 1.4 billion manat in Upstream as a result of the fundamental optimization measures, while its profit in trade, distribution, and sales segment stood at 0.3 billion manat, which is higher than 1.6 billion manat of net profit gained from those two segments in 2019.
The value of SOCAR's total assets is estimated at 64.2 billion manat, current assets stood at 18.3 billion manat, long-term assets amounted to 45.9 billion manat, while current liabilities and long-term liabilities stood at 20.6 billion manat and 21.6 billion manat, respectively. SOCAR's total capital amounted to 21.9 billion manat, cash stood at 6.2 billion manat, and the ratio of total liabilities to total assets was 66 percent.
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