SOCAR Trading purchases seven new tankers
By Amina Nazarli
SOCAR Trading, which is engaged in the sale of crude oil and oil products of SOCAR abroad, bought seven tankers from Palmali, the company which is specialized in transporting goods in the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian seas.
SOCAR Trading Executive Director, Arzu Azimov said that under a contract signed last month, SOCAR Trading bought two "Suezmax" class tankers with a capacity of 140,000 tons and five "Aframax" class tankers with a capacity of 80,000 tons.
The company intends to expand its transport capacity in the Mediterranean and Caspian seas. The company’s fleet has 30 vessels with deadweight of 5,000-15,000 tons. Among them oil tankers are in the majority.
SOCAR Trading, the biggest supplier of Azeri Light crude oil in the world, was incorporated in December 2007 as the marketing arm of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR).
Headquartered in Geneva, SOCAR Trading has a mandate to market Azerbaijani barrels produced from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field and other surrounding fields in Azerbaijan.
While the company continues to market the bulk of SOCAR crude oil export volumes from Ceyhan port in Turkey, it has also been able to develop significant third party volumes through both leveraging its system barrels, as well as its experienced traders developing new business.
The company's market value is about $1.15 billion as of June 30,
2016, reads a message on the company’s website.
An unnamed Big Four accounting firm was entrusted to carry out
valuation of SOCAR Trading’s business as of June 30, 2016.
The Big Four is a name to refer to EY, KPMG, PwC and Deloitte – the four largest professional services networks in the world, offering audit, assurance services, taxation, management consulting, advisory, actuarial, corporate finance and legal services.
“Fair value of SOCAR Trading amounted to $1.15 billion as of June 30, 2016. This means almost a fourfold increase in the company’s fair value from $310 million estimated previously,” reads the message.
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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
Twitter: @amina_nazarli
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