SOCAR’s non-oil exports revealed
By Sara Israfilbayova
The Methanol Plant of the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR exported non-oil products worth $43 million.
The report of the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications dedicated to the results of 2017 reads that “SOCAR Methanol” exported 95 percent of produced output.
The export of non-oil sector in Azerbaijan in 2017 amounted to $1.538 billion. Thus, about 3 percent of the country’s non-oil exports in 2017 falls on “SOCAR Methanol” share.
SOCAR itself exported non-oil products worth $155 million during the last year.
So, more than 10 percent of the country’s non-oil exports in 2017 are accounted for SOCAR.
The methanol plant, which was built by AzMeCo, is one of the largest investments in the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan. The only methanol producing plant in the South Caucasus and Central Asian region has started sales since January 2014.
The annual capacity of the methanol plant is 720,000 tons.
SOCAR purchased the plant from a non-bank credit organization Aqrarkredit [also manages the troubled assets of the International Bank of Azerbaijan], to which the plant was transferred in accordance with the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers due to the debt the enterprise had to state organizations.
The cost of the plant was estimated at 810 million manats ($476.44).
SOCAR is a wholly state-owned national oil company headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan. The company produces oil and natural gas from onshore and offshore fields in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea.
The company includes such production associations as Azneft (the enterprises producing oil and gas onshore and offshore), Azerikimya (the chemical enterprises) and Azerigas (distributor of gas produced in the country), as well as oil and gas processing plants, service companies, and the facilities involved in geophysical and drilling operations.
Currently, SOCAR is the only producer of petroleum products in the country, and operates more than 370 petrol stations in Switzerland, Georgia, Romania and Ukraine.
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