Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijan's State Energy Company SOCAR is planning to increase its investment in Ukraine, despite unstable political and economic situation in the country.

SOCAR office in Ukraine told Trend Agency on April 2 that the company's plans remain unchanged. It intends to continue the construction of filling station complexes in Ukraine.

"The company plans to expand its filing station complex network in Ukraine by 50 percent by autumn 2014. Additionally, it is expected to open new complexes in those provinces of Ukraine where the company wasn't previously represented," SOCAR Energy Ukraine said.

SOCAR, which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad, is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.

SOCAR Ukraine, which represents SOCAR in Ukraine, owns over 60 refueling stations in the country. Some 38 gas stations are operating under the SOCAR brand in the Kyiv, Odessa, Lviv, Nikolaevsk, Rovensk, Cherkasy, Khmelnytsky and Poltava regions of Ukraine.

Azerbaijan's energy giant SOCAR continues to steadily develop its filling stations network both in the capital of Ukraine and other regions. It provides the Ukrainians with quality European oil products in order to strengthen its position in Ukraine's fuel market.

SOCAR invested over $160 million in the development of business in Ukraine from 2009 to 2013. The company's investments in social and charitable initiatives in this country amounted to over $5 billion in the mentioned period.

Currently, the company owns gas stations in Azerbaijan, Switzerland, Georgia and Ukraine. It has representative offices in Georgia, Turkey, Romania, Austria, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Britain, Iran, Germany and Ukraine, and trading companies in Switzerland, Singapore, Vietnam, Nigeria, and other countries.