Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR was focused on diversification of its investments even when the oil prices were high, and this strategy will ensure stability of the company’s revenues, President of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev told Trend in an interview Sept. 2.
"As a result of the right investment strategy, the value of SOCAR’s total assets increased from 9 billion Azerbaijani manats to around 40 billion manats between 2007 and 2015,” Abdullayev said.
According to Abdullayev, SOCAR decided to diversify its investments when the crude oil prices were still high, while other oil companies preferred to primarily invest in oil production and even in the fields the development of which was very costly.
In accordance with SOCAR’s strategy, aside from the production, the company also made investments in the projects for oil and gas processing, transportation and sale, and, thereby, has diversified its investment portfolio.
"In order to reduce the risks and increase the effectiveness, we started getting access to markets in various countries. Once we complete our main projects, everyone will see the results of this strategy, as this will ensure the stability and sustainability of our revenues,” Abdullayev said.
He noted that currently crude oil is sold at a very low price as compared to the previous period, nevertheless, the profitability of the oil and gas processing has increased.
"For example, in the independent analysis of Turkey’s Ak Yatirim, the forecast for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of SOCAR’s Petkim was increased from 498 million Turkish liras to 628 million liras,” Abdullayev said.
According to Abdullayev, currently Petkim is the most important petrochemical company of Turkey.
"Ak Yatirim forecasts 10 percent increase for Petkim’s EBITDA in 2016-2019 and relates this growth to SOCAR’s investments in Petkim,” the SOCAR head added.
He also noted that Goldman Sachs’ purchasing a stake in SOCAR Turkey at $1.3 billion in 2015 shows that the value of SOCAR assets in Turkey has increased.
"We invest our revenues in STAR refinery, Petkim port and other large projects in order to discover Turkish and other strategic markets. After the completion of the mentioned projects, the net profit will increase, as these projects will start to bring revenues,” Abdullayev said.
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