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SOCAR reveals reasons for closing its Geneva office

25 May 2016 17:53 (UTC+04:00)
SOCAR reveals reasons for closing its Geneva office

By Fatma Babayeva

Azerbaijan’s state owned oil company SOCAR closed its official representative office in Geneva naming the fall in oil prices as a reason that forced the company to make structural reforms.

The unexpected threefold drop in oil prices over the last year and a half has forced SOCAR to optimize costs and restructure its various divisions, Akram Zeynalli, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Switzerland told Swiss edition of "Our Newspaper".

"Given that SOCAR was represented in Switzerland by three different structures, namely, the official representative office, SOCAR Trading, and SOCAR Energy Switzerland, the company decided to close down the its representative office in Geneva," said the ambassador.

He further noted that SOCAR Energy Switzerland operates the filling stations network in Switzerland very efficiently rather than the SOCAR representative office by gradually expanding the network across the country.

"I have to state that when possible, I ask my interlocutors about SOCAR's filling stations and I assure you that everyone, filling up the tanks of their cars there, is pleased with the quality of service," told Zeynalli.

"SOCAR's activity has justified hopes and customers are pleased with it," he said, adding that SOCAR has become a competitive company.

SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev, commenting on the closure of the company’s official representative office in Geneva, said that SOCAR like any other company made appropriate decisions in response to the fall in commodity prices.

He added that the decision on suspension of activities of SOCAR's all foreign offices was made in December 2015.

"Functions of representative offices passed to the Baku office and companies, which are fully owned by SOCAR," explained Abdullayev.

SOCAR is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in domestic and international markets, as well as, supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.

Three production divisions, one oil refinery and one gas processing plant, a deep water platform fabrication yard, two trusts, one institution, and 23 subdivisions are operating as corporate entities under SOCAR.

The company has representative offices in Georgia, Turkey, Romania, Austria, Kazakhstan, Great Britain, Iran, Germany and Ukraine as well.

The company exported 350,000 tons of oil products in January-March 2016 compared to 348,600 tons exported in the same period of 2015.

1.23 million tons of oil products were exported by SOCAR in 2015 compared to 1.2 million tons of exports in 2014.

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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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